Harry Potter and the Pirates of the Caribbean
by MixedUpAgain
Summary: Who is Jack Sparrow? Things seem to be getting worse for the pirate lordcaptain. No one has seen Harry Potter since the defeat of Voldemort. What's this? A daughter, a son, and more? Set after 3rd PotC movie and 7th HP book. Spoilers. Alternate PotC:AWE.
1. Bang Bang

Disclaimer: I don't own HP, PotC, Pachelbel's Canon, and anything else.

_It was a wonderful sunny day for the couple that was about to be wed. The sky was a wonderful cerulean blue, there were hardly any clouds blocking the sun or near it, a gentle breeze was blowing, and a couple was about to be bonded for life. It was one of those days where it seemed that nothing could go wrong._

_The groom watched happily as his bride came towards him gracefully, but from the look in his eyes, something big was about to happen. Pachelbel's Canon was playing, it started from the middle of the song. The groom found that the music sounded much better with the emotion going on towards the end, rather than the beginning, which most weddings play._

_At the groom's side there were hardly any people on the grooms' side, compared to the people that the bride had._

"_And do you, Datura Stramonium Lactucarium, take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, for as long as you both shall live?" the priest asked the young woman before him. _

"_I do," the young woman said with radiating happiness. She smiled a beautiful smile, but it was laced with underlying evil._

"_Now I pron-" the priest began to say the last lines that would of bonded the two lovers together. _

"_But," the young woman said interrupting the holy man. "I can not marry this thing. He cannot be loved or love back. Just look at him."_

_The Church was silent and as she said those words, everyone's eyes were fixed on the two couple. As the bride smiled triumphantly, the crowd started to whisper around them. _

"_What do you mean?" the priest asked incredulously._

"_But I do love you," the man next to her said softly. He wasn't even paying attention to their guests._

_As he reached out to touch her cheek, she pushed him away with great strength. He fell towards the stained glass window behind him and plummeted down towards the soft yet hard grass. The brides' bouquet of chrysanthemums_ _flew off after the groom. The petals broke free of their center and floated around the groom like small feathers._

"_That's my girl," he said as he plummeted down._

_He could feel the heat from the sun and the cool air beneath him. He remembered that the sky was blue. Then a sharp pain in his left eye made one side of sky red and the other blue. With his good eye he saw a shard of glass coming straight for him, but as he tried to deflect it, the shard punctured his upper abdomen. _

_He felt his nerves sending the impulses to his brain that something wasn't right. He thought he heard someone shout out a spell beneath him before his body connected with the ground._

_He could hear people talking a few feet away from him, but his eyes and body were too heavy for him to do anything. All he could do was lay there and listen in their conversation. In the back of his head, somewhere, one of the voices sounded familiar, but he couldn't quite place the voice with a face or a name. _

"_So as you can see he has hardly any broken bones just a slight blindness in his left eye and he was bleeding to death from the wound on his abdomen. Don't worry. We barely managed to repair that. I don't know how, but he has thrombocytosis."_

"_What does that mean doctor?" the man standing next to the doctor watched the young man in the bed in front of him sleep peacefully with the monitors beeping around him._

"_Thrombocytosis? It means that he has an unusually high platelet count. Not only is his platlet count high, it's almost off the charts. Usually having thrombocytosis complicates things, but for him it's giving him the ability to heal fast, not get sick, and may even prolong his life. I got to say it's almost like…magic," the old doctor said. He took off his glasses and sighed. "But we still had to give him thirteen stitches." _

"_Is that all he has?" the man asked._

"_He also has a skull fracture here, a cerebral contusion, and I'm afraid he might even be suffering from traumatic amnesia. Other than those injuries, he's perfectly fine," the doctor said. What he said next was that he saying his thoughts out loud unaware. "I'd love to get some samples from him and test on them or maybe even possibly test him myself. Oh how that would put me in history and give me an early retirement."_

"_Excuse me doctor?" the man asked angrily._

"_Ah is something wrong?" the doctor asked pleasantly totally unaware what he just said._

"_As a matter fact yes. I'll be taking him now and all of his records. Thank you," the man said as he pulled out a long wooden stick from his sleeve. _

"_Hey you can't do that! He's not ready to leave. We still have to do blood tests!" the doctor said. He didn't notice the wand until it was right in between his eyes. "What do you think you're going to do with that?" _

"_I'm going to erase you're memories," the man said smiling pleasantly._

"_With a stick?" the doctor asked incredulously and half laughing at the foolish act. "Sir, counseling is just right down the hall. Why don't you go down to them?"_

"_No, with a wand. And no thank you for that suggestion. Obliviate!" the man said as the "good" doctors' memories were being erased. _

"_I know you're awake there boy," the man said after gathering up the records and modifying everyone's memory._

"Capt'n?" someone called out to him.

He blinked once, then twice. He looked at the person who had spoken and was surprised to see an old dirty man instead of a nice clean bride.

"Capt'n?" the person asked again.

"Aye?" he said as he pressed against the bridge of his nose.

"Do ye want grub?" the older man asked him.

He was having a hard time keeping his balance, but the man across him took no notice or if he did he thought nothing of it.

"No," the captain said waving the man off.

"Ye sure? I can get ye somethin' from the galley," he offered.

"I said no. Go do something...other there," said the captain pointing to various places on deck and on sea. He staggered away before the older man could say anything else.

He was starting to feel hotter than usual, but he wasn't about to strip off his clothing because of a little heat. He made his way towards the helm to catch some of the breeze, but it only seemed to have gotten hotter.

"Captain?" someone behind him asked.

He didn't bother turning around, by now his mind had caught up with the time. "Aye?" he said for the second time that day.

"Captain are you alright?" the female voice. Ana Maria, the only female on his crew of miscreants.

"Aye," he said. How many times did he say that just now? "I'm as fine as the weather we're having."

He felt a sudden blast of wind blowing; it almost knocked his hat off. There couldn't be a storm because there just couldn't. He looked up at the sky and started to see the clouds start to darken, just like his vision.

He turned away from the helm and stumbled down the steps. He would have fallen if it weren't for the small arms and soft chest that caught him.


	2. He's a Pirate

"_What do you think son?" the old man asked the young man next to him. _

He had very light brown hair compared to his "sons'" black, but the fathers' skin was dark from the sun.

"_Um…Not to sound ungrateful or anything, but I don't like this one," the son said. He looked to be at least twenty years old and his "father" in his forties. _

"Nah. That's fine," the father said and sighed. Taking this boy commandeering a navy ship for his own was proving to be difficult.

_The young man pulled the ribbon out of his shoulder-length hair with a frustrated sigh. _

"_What's wrong my young sparrow?" the older man asked concerned. _

"_Pirating is fun and all," the young man said looking around. _

"_But?" the father urged him to continue. _

"_But…" the young man said and was staring at something. "I would like to take that ship as my own."_

_The older man grinned brightly when he realized that his son had made a choice, but his grin faltered when he looked to where he was looking at and saw a decently sized ship that needed many repairs. _

"_Are ye sure? With all the treasure we have, I can just buy you one," the father said to the son straining on the word buy._

"_A ship like that? No you can't," he said smiling and started to walk towards it.  
_  
"_You're right because no one is going to want a mangy boat. A ship like that? It ain't worth any pirate or sailors' salt," he said incredulously.  
_  
"_A ship like that is built to last through anything, especially with me sailing under her sails," the boy said dreamily and determined._

"_Son, that's a deathtrap there. It won't last a minute from the oceans gentlest breath."  
_  
"_Just watch. I can get me ship by myself without any help from these landlubbers or anyone," he said as he strode towards the unguarded ship. _

"Aye and I'll be with **my **ship enjoying the winds of the Caribbean feasting upon mountains of food," the older Captain Sparrow said a little too angrily. He didn't even know why he as angry in the first place.

_He walked off the port without a backward glance at the boy who he took under his wing three years ago. Years later, he heard that his sons' ship, Black Pearl, was actually a British carrier in disguise full of gold, jewels, and some of the finest fabric in all of India. Also, he heard that his sons' crew had mutiny against him. In the process of doing so, young Jack's first mate, Barbossa, took his place as captain of the Black Pearl. _

_So Jack might either be dead or insane from the rumors he's been hearing. It's the kids' fault for picking the wrong crew, right? Why should he care about the young man anyways? It's not like he reared the boy most of his life. Jack was around his 24th year, so he was already an adult. _

The older Sparrow stuck to the Code and left the closest thing he had to a son fade into history. Until one day he'll hear about Jack's debt to Davy Jones and the fight for his soul…

"Where 'em I?" Jack rasps out. He tried to lift the sheets covering him off, but his movements were jerky and sluggish.

"Captain! You're awake," someone said.

"Oi! Fetch us some water!"

"Not too loud," Jack said. "Rum."

"What was that Captain?" the person asked again.

"Leave the man alone," Mr. Gibbs said with a chuckle. "You know the Captain. Just rum for 'im. Sick or healthy, the only medicine he'll take is rum."

"And a nice fine woman in me bed," Jack said turning over and held onto Ana Maria. "Right?"

She pried herself off him despite herself. "Captain you need rest. Tell us where we're going."

"What whas 'hat?" Jack asked his speech starting to slur.

"I asked for coordinates sir," Ana Maria said a bit concerned for the older man.

He was still pale and shivering in the Caribbean heat.

" 'Ow about we go deep into the seas," Jack started to say. He realized he finish and that his _loyal_ crew was waiting for him to finish. "Into the corner of No and Where."

"Very funny Jack, but we need to take you to a doctor," Mr. Gibbs said seriously.

"Now that is funny," Jack said. He got up and started to put his boots on before they could stop him. "Let go!"

"Sorry, but you're sick. You need to stay here or we'll take you back to Davy Jones," Mr. Gibbs said. He meant that to be a joke, but when how paler Jack got, he cleared his throat. "Right then."

"We have no doctor, so off to the bridge for me," Jack said.

He tried to stand up before he stumbled and tripped over his own boots. He would of fallen face first into the bedpost if it weren't for the jumble of arms that grabbed him around the middle and put him back in the bed.

"No," was the reply.

"As captain of this ship, I order you to let me to be on deck, you scallywags!" He thought the room did a little flip before it righted itself.

"…you 'eard me," Gibbs was saying.

Jack held a hand to his head as he swayed on the bed. "What was that?"

He thought he heard Gibbs sigh just before fell forward on the bed.

"Is 'e alright?" Ana Maria asked. She was very tempted to kick the captain, but decided against it when she remembered that he was sick.

"I don't know," Gibbs said just as one of the crew brought the rum.

"Is Jack alright?" they asked.

Hours passed by before Jack came to again. Now he was positioned in a comfortable way. His coat, boots, flintlock, compass, vest, sashes, belts, pouches, and other various items were taken off him and placed somewhat neatly on the round table behind them.

When he awoke, he heard voices so he feinted sleep.

"Aye. Ever since he found that cloth with the drawing of the key, he's been acting strange. Not good," a man, Mr. Gibbs, said. "We're losing 'im."

"So what do you propose we do then?" Ana Maria asks. She looked over at their Captain and saw him to be asleep.

"We take Jack to either Tortuga or Port Royal," Gibbs said with a thought. He said this with an afterthought, "But Tortuga isn't the best place for a sick man, let alone a healthy Jack Sparrow."

"So Port Royal is it?" Ana Maria asked. She looked at the Captain's room for the first time.

It's been two months since they got him back and the room would be bare if it weren't for the odd trinkets here and there, two scarves, a strange small circular broken hourglass with very few grains of sand left and looked to be made of gold, his hat, a handful of kohl on the dresser, the round table, several wanted signs of the infamous Captain Jack Sparrow and his crew of miscreants onboard the ship Black Pearl, and there was cloth draping an oval shaped object. 

Ana Maria slowly walked towards it and gingerly lifted it off. She was surprised to see someone looking back at her. It was her own reflection in the mirror. She looked back and then back at the mirror. What she saw frightened her.

Were her eyes deceiving her or was there another man in the room with them lying right next to the captain on the bed?


	3. One Last Shot

'Me own crew has decided to let me rot in Port Royal?' Jack thought to himself. He was alone in the room now, but he knew that someone was at the other side of the door.

He was the captain of this ship! He should be the one making decisions and such! Jack hoped that this wouldn't be a repeat of his first crew.

He shook his head. "Mister Gibbs is an able minded man. He wouldn't do that," he told himself.

"So was Barbossa," a familiar voice said in northern British accent.

Jack looked around wildly and saw no one. He stood up and started to unsheathe his sword. "Who's there?"

"No need for you to sound so surprised. I've been here all along, but since the whole Davy Jones destroying us fiasco," the voice said. Jack couldn't be sure where exactly it was coming from.

"Us? What is this about "us"?" Jack asked. He used his sword to lift up the bed sheets from under the cot.

"Tsk. Don't tell me you've forgotten? It's always been us even before all of this pirate nonsense," the crisp voice said with a small chuckle.

"'Pirate nonsense?' I 'ave you know that I am Captain Jack Sparrow! Captain of the Black Pearl and 'er crew of …"

"Mutineers," the voice said with venom.

"Aye but no," Jack said. He looked around wildly and still saw no one. Was the fever getting to his brain now?

"No it's not the fever. It's something else," the voice said.

"Then wot is it?" Jack asked started to get frustrated. Was he starting to say things out loud again?

"Time me to go now. Ta ta," the voice said and left the sick man in silence.

"Ta ta?" Jack said just as Ragetti and Pintel came into the room. "Yes?"

"Thought we 'eard voices Cap'n," Ragetti said looking around with Pintel.

"Aye. Just talking to ghosts," Jack said.

Ragetti and Pintel laughed at the small joke. After that, the cabin was filled with an awkward silence between the three men who were once a crew a long time ago, but were opposite sides in the mutiny.

"So…" Jack started to say.

"Ah, sorry Captain but there is work to be done," Ragetti said and dragged Pintel with him out the door.

He was left alone in his room. He remembered when he first entered the captain's cabin since he killed Barbossa. The room was filled with such riches! Fortunately, he spent it on livestock, women for his men, an ample amount of rum, fruits, and supplies for the much-needed repair for his one and only Black Pearl. He loved being back in control of the Black Pearl after so many years only to have it snatched away from him again.

At first he didn't mind the distance his crew put on him, but then it got to the point where it was just uncomfortable. Sure they'll risk their lives for their beloved scoundrel of a captain, but there was just something about Captain Jack Sparrow that was unsettling. It may be the fact that he deals with the supernatural, the way he deals things, his somewhat calmness when it comes face to face with the enemy before he tries to worm his way out, or it might be the fact that no one really knows much about Captain Jack Sparrow before he became captain of the Black Pearl.

Jack settled himself on the bedpost and tried to will his sickness away. Nothing happened for a few minutes, but then he started to feel his head starting to slowly clear itself and he felt better.

"Odd, but good," Jack said and sprung up like a jack-in-a-box and left his cabin to observe his crew.

A year and three months passed and no incident happened until one day.

"What iz this?" one of the crew exclaimed.

"Who could of taken our food from right under me nose?" another said.

"Calm down people!" Gibbs tried to shout over them.

The day had just begun and the crew wanted to eat their morning meal before working, but they were really just lazing about and playing games since there was not much to do in the sea.

"What's all the commotion?" Jack asked Gibbs. He was in the middle of figuring out if he should add another belt before he decided to see what his men were yelling about.

"Morning Jack," Gibbs said first. "We seem to have run out of food and supplies of any kind."

"That's it?" Jack asked with a relived shaky breath. _At least I still have my rum._

"No," Gibbs said. He tried not to look at Jack when he told him the bad news.

"WHAT? WHY?" Jack cried out. "WHY IS THE RUM GONE?" Jack had a flashback of asking Miss Elizabeth Swann, now the Mrs. William Turner, the exact same question when they were both stranded on that forsaken island almost three and a half years ago.

"The crew thought it would be fun to uh, mix fire and rum a few nights ago. Don't you remember that? Oh wait no, you were passed out on the floor with a bottle of rum. Sorry Jack," Gibbs said patting his shoulder.

"We need to go now," Jack said with that insane glint in his eye.

"Aye, but how long do you think we can last?" Gibbs asked and walked besides Jack.

"Man can survive three weeks or a month without food," Jack said. He stopped walking and thought about what he just said. Where did he hear that? He continued, "But we're not going to last three days."

"Why's that?"

"Because," Jack said and looked at his rowdy crew. First, he clapped his hands and then yelled to get their attention. "It seems like we need to make port."

The crew stopped and waited to hear more from their captain. Jack looked at them back and he thought he was missing something.

"And?" one of them finally asked.

"And?" Jack repeated. "That's it. So MOVE IT!"

He turned his back to them and looked at his surroundings. Not one spit of land anywhere. He guessed that they were in the corners of No and Where.

"Where we going Captain?" Anamaria asked.

"Anywhere, but Port Royal. Tortuga would be best or Singapore," Jack said. He almost grabbed for the compass that wasn't hanging from his belt anymore. He can't remember if he let Elizabeth keep it or if it's buried with Davy Jones down in the pits of the Caribbean.

Days pass and still no sign of land or birds.

Jack was leaning against the railing above the figurehead. He was watching the faint wind movements going through the sails. He really looked peaceful for a ship that always puts him in danger. Nothing was chasing them; it was just the sea and the Black Pearl's crew.

"The crew is getting restless," Gibbs was telling Jack. He added with an afterthought, "I fear that there might be mutiny Jack."

Jack looked at Mister Gibbs. For a moment terror gripped his heart and made the blood flowing through his veins into ice, but then he barked out a laugh. "As long as it's not that island."

"Jack?" Gibbs asked him.

"Aye?" Jack answered back, looking at his old friend.

"Whatever should happen, you'll still be the captain of the Black Pearl."

"Aye. I was always captain of her even before she was made," Jack said. He looked at this wonderful ship with pride. Before he went back to the helm he said, "Stick to the code."

A couple of hours past before someone in the crows nest noticed the slight movement in the air.

"A bird! It's a bird!" they exclaimed from the top of the crows nest.

It was the first sign of life besides the meager fish that dared go near the ship. Men gathered around the starboard as the bird came closer and closer towards them.

Jack was the first to notice that the bird was a sparrow. It was the first time in a long time since he saw one. Immediately, he was telling the crew not to shoot the petite bird, but the crews' empty stomach ruled out any reason.

"Oi! The lot of you get back here," Jack ordered, but no one listened. He is the captain here! "Don't shoot! She can get us back to shore!"

The next few seconds seemed surreal for Jack and the crew.

He stepped on the platform on the starboard to divert their attention. At that precise moment one of the newer crewmembers pulled out a pistol. Jack saw it but he was more concerned for the welfare of the sparrow and getting to land before this got out of hand.

He saw the man point and put his finger on the trigger. Before he knew it he started to feel the cold seeping inside of him, despite the Caribbean weather, a few seconds before he heard the sound come from the barrel.

_Sorry for the lateness in this chapter. It was a very busy month. I thought I should post this up before my last day of high school tomorrow. Congrats and good luck to all the seniors! _


	4. Best of You

Jack staggered back from the impact of the ball. He almost fell off the ship if it weren't for Mr. Gibbs catching him. He felt his hat fall off from his head.

The ship was dead silent. Jack could only hear his ragged breaths and the wind in the sails.

"Jack. Jack! Are you all right?" Mr. Gibbs asked him as he laid Jack on the floor.

"I'm fine," Jack said. At the moment he really was. "Don't feel a thing. What happened?"

"Jack you were shot," Mr. Gibbs said bluntly.

Jack was getting up and all around him the crew were silent and watched him anxiously. "Are you sure? Because I don't," he said that just as he found the bloody gapping wound on his abdomen. "Would you look at that."

"You killed the captain!" one of the crew said.

"I didn't mean to!" the pirate that shot Jack protested. He dropped his pistol and stood with his mouth open looking at the fallen Jack Sparrow.

"You!" Jack cried out as he got to feet. "I'm not dead yet, so I want to see wind in my sails! Scurry! Movement, I want movement!"

"Jack, mate, you really should have a lie down." Gibbs said ushering Jack down to his cabin.

"Not until I see this crew doing their worth of salt," Jack snapped.

"Come on Captain Jack Sparrow," Anamaria said hoping that using his favorite title for himself will make him listen. "You need rest."

Jack looked at both Gibbs and Anamaria and realized that they were trying their hardest to make him come with them into his cabin to treat his wounds.

"Aye, but get my hat. Bring the ship about if you must!" Jack said finally.

He remembered the events right after Bootstrap Bill Turner came to him in the Pearls' rum locker. Right after Bootstrap Bill left and he found that accursed mark on his palm, making him a marked man. The crew scurried aboard the deck when Jack, the monkey, knocked over his beloved hat overboard.

He can't believe that he actually left it behind only to rendezvous with the mouth of beastie, the Kraken. That was when the Kraken enveloped the Pearl and him into the depths of Davy Jones locker and the darkness.

"Jack!" Anamaria shouted.

"Whoa!" Jack yelled back and prodded her with his hand. It was only then did the pain and realization that he was in lying down in the cot of his cabin made Jack look around wildly. He forgot that it was only a flashback and that he was safe, to a certain degree, onboard the Pearl again.

"Jack?" Gibbs asked and helped Jack remove his shirt. "Sorry but there's no rum, not even in my flask. It's as dry as the sand on the islands."

Anamaria stood behind Jack and looked at his back, something was wrong. She leaned in closer and saw many scars crisscrossing his back. From his lower hip to his upper shoulder were the letters "V-O-L-D-E-M-O-R-T" carved in neatly over the many scars.

"Jack?" she asked. Without waiting for his acknowledgement she continued, "what does 'V-O-L-D-E-M-O-R-T' mean?"

"What does that spell?" Jack asked. "Vodemorte? Valmonte? V-o-l-d-e-m-o-r-t? V-o-l-d is 'Vold' and e-m-o-r-t is 'Emort'? Voldemort? Voldemort!" Jack said triumphantly after trying to say it for the past five minutes as Gibbs inspected the wound and Anamaria watched him.

"What does 'Voldemort' mean then?" Anamaria asked frustrated again.

"How should I know?" Jack yelled. He hissed in pain when Gibbs tried to wipe off the blood.

"Because it's - "Anamaria started to say before being cut off by Gibbs.

"Will you two stop speaking in tongues!" Gibbs said angrily. He couldn't work if Jack kept moving around every time he talked. "Anamaria do you see if it passed through 'im?"

Anamaria looked at Jacks' scarred back once more and found no other wound on his back. "No."

"Blast it!" Gibbs said.

"What?" Jack said licking his lips. He really wanted rum. "Check if any of the bottles has any rum left."

"Sorry Jack," Gibbs said. "There's not even a drop left anywhere, not even in my flask."

"Thanks," Jack muttered. He didn't know if he had passed out from the pain or the lack of rum.

_He entered a large room with slime trailing down the walls. There were candles of various sizes on the floor. The room was dimly lit despite the amount of candles; the shadows seem to be engulfing the flickering candles. Nothing else was in the room except for him, the candles and the pair of shackles on one side of the wall. _

_He approached the center of the room, an evil laugh came from somewhere behind him and he wheels around. _

_Evil laughter arises out of nowhere. It was a mixture of soft hissing noises and cackling sounds laughing maniacally from every direction. He wheeled about from his spot, pointing his wand at each source of sound, confused and alert. _

_His wand? Where did that come from? _

_Voices begin talking from all around the room. They spoke carefully and slowly, and superior, sardonic, and snake-like. Other voices hisses, and laugh insanely at certain points, from everywhere. _

"_Hey you!" a silky voice called out. It sounded somewhat familiar, but he couldn't place where and when. _

_He looked around slowly, listening. _

"_What do you think you're doing? Why do you keep fighting? If you continue to fight it, you'll die," the silky voice said in a singsong voice. _

" _Who are you? Have I threatened you before?" he asked. Something was not right, his mind it felt clearer than it has ever been, different. _

"_I'm someone with somewhat an importance in your pitiful life. Just like you are to your great society." The silky voice said laughing. _

_A shape could be made out moving among the shadows. He looked at it and then continues talking. _

" _So what do you want from me? I'm a bit out of gold and jewels, but if you provide me with a direction I may certainly find some." _

_The silky voice laughed, "You will, Harry. You will. But first you have to give in. You have to realize that it's hopeless." _

" _Harry? I'm afraid you got the wrong bloke love. So what is this hopeless?" Jack asked. He was curious to know about this Harry guy. _

" _You've got to remember what you were fighting for, John. Do you even remember?" the silky voice said. _

"_Piracy. Freedom," Jack said smiling a toothy grin. _

"_Freedom? You've got to be kidding, what freedom? Why did you come here? Why, if you remember, did you become a pirate?" the voice asked._

"_Because I...Because...I…"He started to say. He was caught off guard. He can't really remember why, but he just had the feeling that he had to be. _

"_Because you wanted to get away from people you've saved. The very people who ignored you," the silky voice said. _

"_No! I just...I never saved anyone who didn't need saving by me," he said. _

"_And you stopped believing in freedom in your old world years ago. Please be honest with yourself now, there's no need for secrets," the silky voice said merrily. _

"_No," he said. He strides around the room trying to locate the source. "Why have you brought me here?" _

"_Why this was your favorite place to be tortured, I saw to that. But you were such an competent killer. You're just like the lord and I. Just stop fighting it all. There's nothing to fight for now. There's nothing to believe in for you." _

_The shadow in the darkness began hissing and moving about at the edge of the shadows. _

" _Just give in and join us again. Nobody will blame you for that. You could be a part of something better. Better than a captain of mutinous pirates." _

_He was starting to feel hopeless and tired. He swayed a little from either the weariness in his body or what the silky voice was saying to him. He stumbled back a few steps, closer to the shadow. _

"_Be weary of the dear doctor," a hissing voice said. He couldn't place the accent or the snake-like voice. _

"_Come on Harry. Time's almost up. Break free of the bonds that bind you to yourself," the silky voice said. _

_He didn't know who this silky voice was, who Harry was, and he did not know what became of the hissing voice. What importance are these people to him? He is Captain Jack Sparrow of the ship Black Pearl and he was not going to give up without some more answers. _

"_No!" he said. "Time is not running out for this captain just yet again. If you're after the Pearl you might as well give up." _

_He lifted the wand and started to point at the shadows. He wished he had his pistol and sword then._

"_Lumos maximus!" he said. Immediately the tip of the wand lit up and lit up the room. It almost seemed like he said it out of habit. He doesn't remember where he heard that from before. _

_Davy Jones' crew came limping in to the light in front of him. To his left was the British Royal Navy. To his right were people in long black capes with white masks. He turned around and behind him was his previous mutinous crew with Jack the monkey._

_He pointed the wand at them and didn't know what to do then. There were no exits, no Will Turner, no Elizabeth, no nothing to help him escape this time. He was alone. Just like that time when the Kraken got to him at last, thanks to Elizabeth. _

_Everywhere around him they surround him, growling and closing in. He dropped the wand carelessly on the floor and waited for death. _

_Suddenly, a large snake comes out of nowhere and starts to wrap coil itself around his body. At first he thought he was going to be crushed to death by the snake, but he saw the snake shielding him from everyone else._

Jack woke and jumped with a start. He looked around wildly. No one else was in the room with him.

He checked himself to see if anything was missing. The only thing missing was his shirt. He discovered it to be the bandage that held onto his abdomen. Hebecame aware of that terrible pain.

"We clearly need to restock," Jack muttered to himself. He was soaked in his own sweat. "Need rum."

Jack carefully got off his cot and made his way towards the door. He thought he heard voices coming right outside his door.

"Just let the poor man sleep," Jack heard Gibbs say. "You shot him once already, no need to deprive a man from his sleeping. Plus it's bad luck if you wake a man when he's sleepin'."

"Aye, aye," someone said.

"I thought I heard something from his cabin," Anamaria said. "I go check it out."

Jack silently cursed himself and the woman. He hastily, but silently, made it back to the cot.

He heard the wooden door creak open and then a minute later it closed again. Anamaria walked back to the small group outside his door.

"How is he?" Gibbs asked concerned for his old friend and captain.

"He's resting. Looked like he was chasing demons in his sleep or maybe the other way around," she said and stood next to the doorpost.

"Have you told 'im yet?" Stroud, a new salt to the seas and pirating, asked. He came aboard right before they ran out of supplies.

"Told him what?" Gibbs asked confused.

"You know…" Pintel said.

"ABONDON SHIP!" Cottons' parrot squawked out.

"Oh," Gibbs said remembering. "Nah not yet. I do think that it's bad luck to tell a man who was shot accidentally by one of his crew that we, the whole crew, are planning on leaving."

"Bad luck or not, the seas are changing Gibbs and you know it. Now they're giving any pirates full pardon if they turn themselves in," Anamaria said.

"I don't think so. Like an officer once said 'Any man who sails under a pirate flag or wears a pirate brand gets what he deserves: a short drop and a sudden stop'," Gibbs said.

"Are you saying what I think you're saying?" Stroud asked becoming paler.

"Aye," Gibbs said. "They'll still take us to the gallows when we come knocking on their doors."

"So what should we do? Stay and be killed or leave and be killed?" Ragitti asked.

"No body is going to be killed. Don't listen to this old salt," Anamaria said. "We should tell him now while he's getting weak."

"If Jack won't let us leave, we'll make him leave," Pintel said.

At this point, Jack stopped listening and shook his head. Every crew he picks up finds him not serving their interests as their captain.

For a second, he crossed the room and picked up his pistol. He had half a mind to shoot them on the spot, but he lowered his pistol and placed it back where it was.

"You really should," a voice said. It sounded like it was hissing.

"Who's there?" Jack asked and picked up the pistol again.

"What are you going to do? Shoot me?" the hissing voice said laughing. It sounded like it was coming from the covered mirror. "You couldn't kill me then, you can't kill me now. We'll have another chat later."

"What?" Jack asked. He was walking towards the mirror. He pointed the pistol behind it and looked over it.

No one was there! Was he hearing voices? Did he have a fever? So many questions again and nothing was being answered.

Mutiny.

Jack laid down in his cot. He suddenly had a flashback, one where this current crew had hinted at mutiny or at least having a new captain. Captain Jack Sparrow was not meant to be just an ordinary buccaneer.


	5. Somewhat Damaged

Jack stayed in his cabin for two days. He refused to let anyone in. He knew he was slowly dying, but what would claim him first: dehydration, starvation, lack of sleep or the bullet in him? By the way, Jack thought that he was not hiding at all, but merely staying away from those thieving, mutinous scallywags that he use to call his best mates.

"Come on Jack. You need to get out of there," Gibbs tried to rouse his friend out.

Jack shook his head despite the fact that Gibbs could not see him. He knew he was running a fever, but he didn't care. He would rather die than let anyone else take his ship, he already proved and done that with the great Beastie.

Outside the captains' cabin, Anamaria told them that they were nearing Tortuga. As they neared the port, they found the small isle to be in ruins. The crew gasped.

"There's got to be more ports accepting pirates," Gibbs said angrily.

Jack heard the commotion and curiosity got to him, he ventured outside. The heat was tolerable, but the small breeze felt good against his sweating, fevered body.

"Jack!"

"Take port here," Jack said.

"Captain don't you see what has become of Tortuga?" Pintel said. He pointed at the sign that read, _Pirates Ye Be Warned_.

"Aye," Jack said. He gave a small prayer to their fallen pirates.

" 'Tis bad luck sir," one pirate said.

"We've…got to…" Jack felt like someone stuffed his head with cotton. He couldn't make out anything as the world swam around him. He could feel the darkness seeping through his vision but he tried to stay awake.

"We're going to Port Royal. It's not the safest, but at least he will be taken care of over there," Gibbs said.

Gibbs was no doctor but he can tell if someone was sick or not and Captain Jack Sparrow was one sick dog.

"It looks like Jack hasn't even had a wink of sleep," Anamaria commented. They watched their friend try to be steady on his feet, but they took him back into his cabin.

"No!" Jack said. He tried to get up, but he could feel people weighing and holding him down.

"You need some rest Jack," someone said.

"No," Jack said again.

Gibbs, as first mate, told the remaining crew to make sail for Port Royal and to change their colours if they were going to come out of Port Royal alive. But before they could leave Tortugas' port, they heard someone screaming for them.

"WAIT! WAIT!" someone screamed.

The crew stopped what they were doing and peered over the railings to see two dirty women, one with red hair and the other had blonde hair; both of them wore ruined dresses.

"Ladies! So good to see you!" Jack said cheerfully greeting both of them. He momentarily forgot about the little affair.

The crew exchanged glances with each other. For a moment ago, Jack was pinned down and about to sleep. Now he is up and about, as if nothing was ailing him.

"YOU! Never mind! You may leave," Scarlet said the moment her eyes rested on Jack.

"Yeah. We can make it through," Giselle said.

"Hey! Hey! Hey! Now there, loves. You're welcome to join us, loves, but if you want, you may never ever again see the lights and seas of Captain Jack Sparrow," he said the last part dramatically with a pained expression.

"And why is that?" Scarlet asked without compassion towards her old flame. She put her hands on her hips.

"Because my dear, I'm wounded and possibly dying," Jack said. He pretended to swoon.

"Goodbye Sparrow," Scarlet and Giselle said with a little wave.

"Poppycock!" Jack said. This time he really did swoon, but this time he went overboard.

Those present heard his body make contact with the sea with a splash. For a moment, no one did anything and then realization came to them and all hell broke lose.

"Jack!" several people yelled.

The waters were still and yet no one dove down after him. After all, not many of them can swim.

Jack could feel the water pull him lower and lower. As he drifted downwards, he could faintly see the light from the surface and heard laughter. It sounded familiar…Davy Jones! How could he be back?

The air ran out in his lungs and he struggled to reach the surface. He could feel his body break through the surface and he took large deep breaths. Before he could swim towards the dock he felt the water weighing him down again. For what seemed like an eternity, he broke through the bonds and swam as fast as he could towards the dock as he heard the damned laugher of Davy Jones fill the air around him. He thought he saw a large tentacle flick behind him at the corner of his eye.

Jack hoisted himself on top of the dock. He plopped on the spot and let himself regain his breath and composure that is Captain Jack Sparrow. But he was shaking visibly from having Davy Jones almost getting him again.

"Are you all right Jack?" Giselle asked him. She held him close to her bosom much to the relief of the captain.

"I'm fine now," Jack said with a sly smile. He stopped shaking.

"Good," Giselle said. She helped Jack up and then she smacked right across the cheek.

"I don't think I deserved that. What was _that_ for?" Jack asked rubbing his cheek. This time he really had no idea what he was being slapped for.

"That was for you not coming for me sooner," Giselle said. She turned around and walked up the now lowered plank towards the great ship.

Before Jack could say anything he felt a painful sting across his other cheek. "Wretch! What was _that_ for?"

"That was for incase the young handsome man forgot to give it to you," Scarlet said. She trailed after Giselle.

As soon as Jack was safely onboard _his _ship, he said with as much enthusiasm as a man could say after being slapped twice, "Welcome aboard the Black Pearl. The fastest ship in the Caribbean that could beat the _devil_ himself. "

He felt himself being slapped again the moment he turned towards his crew.

"And what was _that _for?" Jack asked with a small smile while rubbing his reddening cheeks.

"For bringing them along," Anamaria said and walked away.

"Women," Jack muttered under his breath.

"Are you all right Jack?" Gibbs asked him.

"I think I was better off drowning," Jack said. His face was starting to feel sore.

"Do we have a heading, sir?" Gibbs asked.

"Aye," Jack said. "Anywhere but here. And do try to sail around that one island full of cannibals who thought me to be their God in flesh who needed to be _freed_."

"I'll see what we can do," Gibbs said and soon walked off.

Jack started to walk towards his cabin when he felt the unmistakable slap across his cheek. What'd he do now to deserve this lifetime of slaps?

"Bloody hell!" Jack said frustrated. "Now what was _that_ for!"

"I dunno…I felt a little bit excluded," Ragetti said.

Jack sighed in frustration and pain. "Keep it to yourself next time."

"Aye sir. Sorry sir," Ragetti said and kept his head bowed as he walked off.

Jack left the deck and went back to his cabin. He didn't need Scarlet or Giselle there, though it would be comforting, to tell him what happened at Tortuga. He all ready knew and it was not a good sign at all; Royal Navy and possibly the East India Trading Company.

He plopped on his bed and let his mind wander as they set sail once again, but unfortunately for our dear captain, his mind wandered deep as he was swept into a memory that _was_ not _his_.

_He was in some sort of cottage. The same boy, no man, was there again. The one with messy black hair, glasses, his skin was paler than the previous self, and he looked a little bit older. Instead of wearing those strange formal clothes, he wore just black trousers. He was just sitting at the table eating some sort of broth with a strange sandwich. _

_Jack could see the many scars crisscrossing his bare back with the word VOLDEMORT going diagonal from his right shoulder and stopping at the hip like some sort of banner. The letters seemed familiar to Jack, but he couldn't place where. Jack tried to move, but found that he was bound there._

_They both hear knocking on the door and the whelp opened it just a crack. He gasped and quickly shut the door again. He managed to spit some of the broth out of his mouth and hastily wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. He took a deep breath and unlocked the small copper chain barricades from the door. The door seemed to glow for a second._

_He opened the door for the family to be let it. "Sorry about that. Please come in."_

"_Thank you Harry dear," an older red-haired woman said. She looked nothing like Scarlet._

_As the family piled inside, Harry, the man-child, hurriedly pulled a shirt over his head. He turned around briefly and he didn't notice the youngest of the bunch look wide-eyed at his back, but they didn't say anything. _

"_Dreadfully sorry for this mess Mrs. Weasley," Harry said. He hurried from corner to corner picking up everything he can._

"_There's nothing to be sorry about Harry," the older male, Mr. Weasley, said cheerfully. "But it is awfully drafty in here."_

_Up to this point, Harry didn't notice that they were taking off their coats and scarves. _

"_Is it snowing all ready?" Harry asked them confused. He could have sworn it was spring._

_The red-haired family couldn't help but notice all the papers, books, shirts, feathers, empty inkwells, some strange objects, shiny multi-coloured round discs, small black rectangular things, diagrams of ships, a few bottles, and other various things lying about in the room._

"_Not yet Harry," one of the men said. _

"_Yup fall it is now. And it has just begun to be one of the coldest ones yet," his identical twin said._

"_Leaves are turning," the first twin said._

"_Heads will roll with the on-coming holidays," the second twin said. _

"_Especially with our new invention."_

"_Which, sadly, we can not tell you with this lot here."_

"_Yup, truly sorry we are mate. I think you would of loved the idea too, since dear Remus is the one who gave us the idea."_

"_Hint.Hint."_

"_Boys. I told you not to bother Harry." _

_Harry had a few books under his arm as he went to put them away. "So it's fall then?"_

"_Uh…that's what we just said Harry," the second twin said. "Where have you been this whole time?"_

"_I've been here…" Harry sounded lost and confused. He stopped what he was doing and froze on the spot. _

_After a minute or two of uncomfortable silence, the eldest woman spoke. "Harry, dear, have you eaten anything yet?"_

_Harry seemed to have snapped out of his daze. "Yeah I was in the middle of eating, but go make yourselves a home here. Mr. Weasley you said it was cold here? Here," Harry said as he lazily waved and pointed a stick, a wand, at the dusty and cow webbed fireplace. Black flames grew from inside, quickly turned an ice blue. _

"_Really?" Mrs. Weasley asked._

"_Aye. I mean yes," Harry said. He coughed and pointed at the next room, which would be the kitchen. _

_The table where he used for eating was littered with more papers, aside from the bowl of now old soup and a half eaten sandwich. _

"_Do you mind if we help you clean?" Mrs. Weasley asked. She was starting to fear for the boy whom she once thought of as a son. He was starting to have very poor cleaning habits. _

"_Nah. I wouldn't be as daft as to put you to work if you're my guests," Harry said. He didn't bother using magic to clean up for him._

"_Are you sure? It wouldn't be a bother at all," Mrs. Weasley said. She looked forlornly at the plates and clothes that needed to be cleaned._

"_I'm as positive as Snuffles being innocent," Harry said._

"_Snuffles?" the family inquired._

"_I meant Sirius. Yeah Sirius," Harry said and he seemed to have dazed off by some unseen force again._

_The family just looked at him with uncertainty. Was he loosing his head? This Harry has changed from the sane young boy to this now struggling adult. Was it the war, the defeat of Voldemort, or the betrayal of his fiancé? _

"_Harry, dear, are you busy tonight?" Mrs. Weasley asked. _

"_Busy? Tonight?" Harry asked when he visibly shook himself. "I was going to go over these diagrams and think up a plan to infiltrate Voldemorts' wards."_

"_Harry?" Ginny asked tentatively._

"_Mum I told you he's gone off his rocket ever since that failed marriage with her," Ron whispered loud enough for everyone to hear him._

"_Ronald! What did I tell you?" Mrs. Weasley said warningly._

'_Marriage? With her?' Harry thought and he remembered something. He started to rub his chest where the glass only pierced him months earlier. "Oh! Sorry about that. I forgot to take my medication," Harry laughed nervously. _

_He pulled out a small corked vial and a pill from under the piles of paper on the table. He gulped both down in a matter of seconds.  
_

"_There! All better," Harry said smiling as if nothing out of the ordinary happened. He seemed more confident and sure of his actions. "Yeah. Sorry again. I have some sort of memory relapse from time to time because of you know what at you know where. It makes me kind of perky I suppose," Harry said using a lot of hand movements and gestures. _

"_He's still off his rocker," Ron said mumbling. _

"_Other than that. I don't think I have anything planned for tonight. Why do you ask?" Harry asked them._

"_Oh didn't you get the invite, dear?" Mrs. Weasley asked._

"_Invite? Is something happening?" Harry asked confused. He looked at each of their faces and noticed that Ron wasn't looking at him. "Is everyone all right?"_

"_Yes Harry. Everyone's all right. Nothing to fuss over about," Ginny said._

"_Then?" Harry started to say._

"_Our youngest brother proposed to Hermione," Fred and George said at the same time. They both clasped Ron's shoulders and pretended to sob._

"_Oh," was all Harry could say. "Congratulations Ron."_

"_Mum we're going to be late," Ron said ignoring Harry._

"_Yes Ronald, I'm pretty sure that Hermione and her parents could hold off a few more minutes," Mrs. Weasley said._

"_Harry didn't you get the owl that Ron sent a few weeks ago?" Bill asked._

"_I haven't received any owls other than the Daily Prophet and my doctor. Other than those two, nothing," Harry said. He did receive the random letter of his fans, but he didn't feel it was time to mention them._

"_I'm pretty sure that he probably lost it somewhere in the mountain of papers he has stacked here," Ron said. He was starting to fidget. _

"_Uh…let me try something. Accio Ron's invitation," Harry said waving his wand out again. _

_They waited several seconds, but nothing appeared. _

_Harry realized that Ron didn't want him at the small party to celebrate and that the Weasleys' were just trying to make him feel included, like he was apart of a family._

"_Oh well. Come on now we've got to go now. Hermione has probably been waiting for an hour now," Ron said._

"_Harry you could still join us," Mr. Weasley said. That vaguely reminded Harry of Voldemort and Death Eaters._

"_I'm sorry, but I will have to decline your invite. I seem to have forgotten that something had come up later tonight in the evening, you know," Harry said feeling put down. _

"_Oh. Maybe we'll see you at the wedding rehearsal or the wedding," Mrs. Weasley said._

"_Yes I will make sure to have free time for that. It's not like I don't believe that my best mate is going to get married to my other best mate or anything like that," Harry said. He mentally glared at Ron._

"_Well, Ron still hasn't picked a best man," Mr. Weasley hinted._

"_Actually, I told Seamus that he will be," Ron said hastily. "We're going to be late."_

"_Oh, well I better let the wards down so that you can make a hasty arrival. Do give Hermione my congratulations. I know how women like to feel special on that sort of day," Harry said ignoring what Ron said before._

"_Thank you for having us here," Ginny said._

"_Thanks for coming. It gets awfully lonely here with Hedwig dead for the past week now, you know. Well I'm sure we'll meet again so there's no need for such formal goodbyes" Harry said and waved at them as he took down the wards from his house.  
_

"_Bye Harry," the family said and left with a 'pop'. _


	6. What you waiting for?

Jack snapped from his daze and realized something.

"Something troubling you Jack?" Anamaria asked him.

Oh how she would of loved to be as lady-like for Jack just for a moment, but she shook the thought away from her mind. She was tired of waiting for Jack and then she found Nathaniel. He wasn't a pirate, not even a sailor; he was the owner of the tavern in Haiti. Anamaria knew that Jack would not hesitate to go to the tavern as long as he never found out about Nathaniel and nothing out of the ordinary happened.

Nathaniel was one of the reasons why Anamaria wanted to give up pirating. He helped Anamaria out when she missed the year and a half off the Pearl to try something different. And she has, a new life without Captain Jack Sparrow. Then, he comes back into her life and recruits her back into his crew. And look where that anchored her now.

"Aye," Jack muttered in disdain. "There is not one drop of rum or otherwise commendable liquor on this boat. Ship."

"Shall I bring a spring upon her cable captain?" Anamaria asked. She added captain to remind him of his position.

"Aye. No. Don't, we all ready have wind. We might as well go where you want to go," Jack said, he thought _To Port Royal._

"Aye," Anamaria said. It was not like Jack Sparrow to easily give up rum, but something in him has changed.

"Oi!" Jack yelled a moment later. "On second thought, change course to that island." He was pointing to a barren island. Anamaria thought she saw something like a ship leaving from the island.

"Aye, aye," Anamaria said.

"You! You! And you! Actually all of you bring a shovel or something to dig with," Jack yelled as he walked across the deck.

There was a chorus of 'ayes'.

"See something Jack?" Gibbs asked when he reached the pirate.

"I see a lot of things Mister Gibbs, but what I do see is treasure," Jack said moving his hands around like he was holding onto something slippery.

The Black Pearl stopped about a mile away from the island and most of the crew loaded up on the longboats with their shovels. Jack was standing on the first longboat leaning heavily on one of the crews' head like a doorpost.

As soon as they reached the island, Jack let the crew get out first as he slowly made his way out.

"Where do we dig Captain?"

"Here. There. Oh and probably somewhere around those bushes too," Jack said. He was hopping in place on top of a patch of sand. "No not here. Well what are ye all waiting for? Dig!"

"Isn't this stealing?" Ragetti asked.

"It's not stealing - " Pintel started to say.

"Oh! I've found something! I've found something!" a mangy old pirate said.

"Well dig it out," Gibbs said.

A small cluster formed around the lone pirate as he and another dug up the hole. Their shovels stopped when they hit something hard at the bottom. They lifted it out of the hole, with the help of their mates, and saw that it wasn't the only wooden chest in there.

"Look there's more!"

"Well keep digging then," Pintel said. His eyes were focused only on the treasure.

"Okay we'll load these up to the Black Pearl and then we'll see what our friends have left us," Jack said.

The first longboat was loaded with two of the larger chests. Jack and another pirate rowed back to the Black Pearl, which Jack just sat at the nose of the longboat staring.

Once all of the chests have been opened and divided equally to the pirate crew, everyone was on edge thinking that their mate might take more than his share.

Jack ignored them and walked towards the rum lockers of his ship. _His _ship. After all these years, he got the Pearl back and that is all that mattered to him. Jack didn't notice the rope and his foot got tangled in it, disrupting his thoughts. Down he went. His arm had caught the railing and he brought himself up to his knees. Jack looked around and noticed the remaining crew watching him deciding if they should help him or not. Jack tried to pretend that he meant to do that.

He steadied himself and made his way towards the rum lockers even though he knew that they would still be empty. He passed the empty cages that usually held chickens and his stomach growled with hunger.

"Hush you," Jack said. His stomach growled again.

He went inside the rum locker and not too surprised, found no rum. For a moment, he wished that Bootstrap Bill were there with his half-crustacean body to offer him the last remaining bottle of rum.

He could almost hear that taunting voice saying "Time's up Jack".

"Jack!" Gibbs called out to him.

"Aye?" Jack inquired. Throughout all their troubles and hardship, Jack found Gibbs to be his closest thing he had to family, besides his father, which may be why Gibbs is his first mate. If only Jack found Gibbs before the mutiny.

"We thought the worse when we didn't see on deck," Gibbs stated.

"I found the worse when I came down here and found no rum. If seeing Bootstrap Bill was a dream, then this is a horrible dream without rum," Jack said holding an empty rum bottle. "I don't like this feeling."

"What feeling Jack?" Gibbs asked concerned.

"A world without rum. It's like the terrible I have way down in my gullet grasping that part of me where the food goes," Jack said grimacing.

"You do look terrible Jack. Maybe you should rest. Save your energy for the fight."

"Rest? After not receiving none for the past few days? I'd rest easy if I knew the surrounds were easy," Jack said. He clutched his stomach and thought he felt something soak through. He thought he heard the beatings of two hearts. "Do you hear that?"

"Damn the devil Jack! Why didn't you say anything?" Mister Gibbs said ignoring Jack's question. "Yer lucky to still are alive. I'm no doctor and that looks pretty nasty Jack. Come on lets get ye out of here and into your cabin."

Gibbs hoisted Jack up over his shoulder when Jack started to sway more dangerously than usual. He had a fairly hard time getting up those ladders and steps. The moment he reached the deck, he motioned for Ragetti and Pintel to carry Jack.

"Alive? I was dead almost a year ago. Can you believe that? I find that said terrible Beastie didn't have as much fowl breath as everyone has claimed 'im to have. Those teeth, there were so many. Beastie should do something about them. How did I get the Pearl back here? Can't seem to remember much after that," Jack muttered. He was feeling drowsy, but he kept trying to fight it off.

"It's a good thing that we're almost free of him then," Anamaria said nodding towards Jack.

"Not now! You're not going to make things better," Gibbs said about to walkout.

"Wait! Wait! I need a couple words with you guys. You Gibbs, Pintel, Ragetti the one eye, Mister Cotton, and Marty," Jack said trying to get up, but he got tangled up with the air.

"And what about me Jack?" Anamaria asked.

"Sorry love, but you have work to do," Jack said shooing her away.

Once the small group was assembled in Jacks' cabin, he had them close the windows and the doors. Jack was leaning heavily against the bed hugging a pillow. The others were sitting around the bed looking at Jack.

"Is he going to say something?" Pintel whispered.

"Aye," Jack said his eyes focusing on something. "What I say here mustn't be uttered to open ears."

"Is it treasure? Gold? Silver? Copper will do nicely also Captain," Pintel asked. His eyes shining with the thought of unnamed treasures.

"Uh…No. But you being my most dishonest crew of loyal pirates I somewhat trust ye. I know we haven't done an ounce of honest pirating, but looking at current situations that I myself am in, I think that the _Wicked Wench_, I mean Black Pearl would probably do better without me sailing under her sails again. Barbossa and his crew of miscreants have found their spot of pirating over the eleven years, but I find myself wondering if…" Jack said not looking at them. He looked like he was having trouble saying the words and not believing what he is saying. He looked at each man and parrot before saying with false brightness in his voice, "So the ship is yours - "

"But - " Mister Gibbs said interrupting Jack and getting interrupted himself.

"- The moment me own heart does. I can't trust anyone else but the lot here. Maybe Tia Dalma also but her heart is not for the sea. So do what you want to Pearl," Jack said. He let them digest the news. "Slash that. Don't do anything that you want with the Pearl. Make sure she lives a nice and full life of pirating. There. So as you were now."

"Captain!" Marty said breaking the silence.

"Bugger. What are you pirates still doing here? I thought I told you to scurry on about," Jack said. He pressed the area around the wound and tried to not look like he was in pain. _Not good_, Jack thought.

"We can't take the Black Pearl."

"Aye you can and you will. It's about what a man can and can't do. And I'm saying that you can take the Pearl. I already know of your plans of dropping me off on Port Royal. It doesn't matter, I'm dying and that's that. What I'm saying is that when I die, I won't end up in Davy Jones Locker so there's nothing you can do to save me this time," Jack said.

The men surrounding him heard what he was saying and it was not what their Captain Jack Sparrow would say. This is a man resigned to his fate and Captain Jack Sparrow is not like that, not ever. Not when he was mutinied on an island, not when he was facing the gallows, not when facing the impossible, not when he was facing Davy Jones, and most certainly not when he was facing the said terrible Kraken. There was never a moment when the pirate wouldn't stop fighting even if it meant his end.

"So that's how you're going to leave us Jack? You've faced what no other pirate has faced before and now you're going to die from a misfired pistol shot?"

"Aye it appears so. My time was up long ago. I plan to die with a nice large bottle of rum next to me side. Doesn't sound that bad now does it?" Jack said with a smile that wasn't fooling anyone.

"Jack we're just going to Port Royal to help you get treated. We're not going to leave you no matter what the Code says," Marty said.

"Aye, we could never do that," Ragetti said. "Well we won't but the rest of the crew might."

"Well ye be forgetting that this ships' sails be flying black and I don't want to change the Black Pearls' colours just because of a little scratch," Jack said. He kept a death grip on the bed just so that he'll remain upright. He really didn't want to be fussed over unless it was with a lovely lass with bottles of rum around them around the bed or anything flat surfaced.

"Captain we really need to be getting you some rum," Pintel said.

"Aye, being sober does not fit you Jack," Gibbs joked.

"Well I feel somewhat assured. So the faster we go, the more supplies we can get and I bet you gents are ravenously hungry," Jack said. He could feel sweat trickling down his forehead.

"Do we have a heading Captain?"

"Aye. North to Port Royal," Jack said with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. He still had a feeling that things were just going to get worse when they reached Port Royal.

The pirates before him left in a hurry and left Jack alone in his cabin. Jack crossed to the other side of the cabin and closed the door. For a long time, Jack just leaned against the closed door and suppressed the shudders that cam to him. He slowly removed the pillow and found that it was spotted with blood. The borrowed shirt he was wearing had more blood on it.

"Bugger. Bugger. Bugger. Bugger. Bugger. Bugger. Bugger," Jack muttered and held onto the pillow again. He tried to repress the sickness coming to him. "Ugh. I feel like I've eaten something rotten and it's staying down me stomach."

He really didn't want to, but his eyes closed before he could acknowledge that they were closed and he sagged to the floor. He could feel the waves rocking the Black Pearl back and forth in a strange rhythm, the rhythm of the sea.

He thought he heard a young girl singing softly "Yo ho, yo ho a pirate's life for me".


	7. Otherside

Jack woke up and found himself in a small cramped carriage covered in his jacket. A fairly clean-looking Mister Gibbs and Anamaria were sitting across from him. Outside, he could hear people talking, children laughing, dogs barking, birds cawing, and other various sounds, but he couldn't see anything through the small draperies over the carriage windows.

"Where are we?" Jack mumbled his voice was weak and coarse. He coughed loudly into his hand.

"Here Jack," Gibbs said and handed him a bottle of rum.

Jack grasped the uncorked bottle of rum, but he lost his grip on it. Gibbs just gave him a nervous smile as he grabbed the fallen bottle, uncorked it, and poured it in a small goblet for Jack. This time Jack was able to hold the lighter stem of the goblet than the large neck of the bottle.

"You gave us quite a scare Jack," Anamaria said flatly, but seemed somewhat unconcerned.

"Where are we?" Jack asked again as the small carriage bounced. This time his voice was less rough.

"We're in the port of Port Royal," Gibbs answered him and refilled his empty goblet.

"And where be the Black Pearl?" Jack asked alarmed. He tried to sit up, but he found it to be painful and hard.

"Stay down man. The Black Pearl is fine. We weighed anchor at an island not to far from here," Anamaria answered his question. She looked at the pale pirate captain in front of her and added, "We used one of the longboats to get you here. Don't worry we're replenishing our stocks now. "

Jack only nodded and closed his eyes. He unconsciously held the empty goblet closer to him. _They were in Port Royal already?_ he thought. Port Royal was a day or two away from Tortuga depending on the weather, how much wind was in the sails, and which path they took.

The next time Jack opened his eyes they were already in front of the local blacksmiths. He felt the carriage move as Mister Gibbs and Anamaria left and closed the door behind them. He could hear them knocking and asking the blacksmith where William Turner was, but he tuned them out and didn't hear what they were saying.

He looked around the small carriage and found the rum bottle. He quickly, as quick as a man in his state can, exchanged the empty goblet for the half filled bottle of rum. This time he was successful in holding the bottles' neck, but he had to hold it with two hands.

"Ah now this must be a dream," Jack said grinning and took a swig. He started to feel queasy, but he was Captain Jack Sparrow he never got sick of rum. _The rum couldn't possibly be the one that is making me sick like an old seadog who has had more than his fill of rum,_ Jack thought with disdain.

"Looks like we're going to take a little bit more time than expected is all Anamaria," Jack heard Gibbs say.

"Yeah but the sooner we're rid of him the better. Ever since he came back and all, things haven't been feeling right and he doesn't act like the Jack Sparrow I knew," Anamaria said with a huff.

Their voices were getting closer to the coach.

"Aye but not many men can go through the same as things as he has," Gibbs said. He added with an afterthought, "Be nice to the man on his last moments of life."

"Fine," Anamaria said.

They opened the carriage doors on both sides of Jack and climbed in.

"Ah you're awake now Jack!" Gibbs said as if nothing had transpired between him and the woman sitting next to him. "Pintel! Ragetti! You heard the blacksmiths' directions!"

"Aye!" they both said. For a moment both of them struggled with the reins to see who would be driving the coach, but Pintel won.

"How do you feel Jack?" Anamaria asked feigning concern in her voice.

"Like someone shot me in the stomach," Jack said and took another swig of rum. "You know I can't help but feel helpless in these kind of moments when I there are people offering me help but are otherwise needing help themselves."

"Excuse me?"

"Exactly," Jack said and smiled. His smiled dropped and fear creped his face when he remembered something. "We're going to dear William's and Elizabeth's home right?"

Gibbs and Anamaria only nodded not understanding where this was heading.

"I can not possibly be expected to stay there in hopes of recovering, if any," Jack saying sounded rushed.

"And why not?" Anamaria asked trying to keep the anger in her voice down.

"Because…Elizabeth she does terrible, terrible, terrible things to the rum. I bet she has none in her home. Poor William he probably doesn't know about the luxuries of the delight we call rum," Jack said putting his hands on his head.

His face felt cold as he touched it. When he removed his hands they were moist and clammy. He was starting to break out into a sweat. The back of his skull started to throb painfully. He could barely see what was directly in front of him, but ever so slowly things became out-of-focus, then clear, and back to out-of-focus.

"We're here," Ragetti announced. "Haven't we been here before?"

Jack hadn't noticed that the coach had stopped.

They heard Pintel whistle at what they thought was about the house. "Now how do ye suspect they got away with pirating?"

"They probably got full pardons or they did something right," Anamaria said as she got out of the coach. She looked at the vast mansion.

What she and the others don't realize is that this is the same mansion that Ragetti and Pintel first captured Miss Elizabeth Swann in when they thought that she was Bootstrap Bill Turners' only child.

Anamaria waited for Gibbs to come out before knocking on the doorknocker in front of the double doors. They whispered to each other as they waited for the butler or manservant to open the doors.

"How are you holding up Captain?" Ragetti asked as he peeked inside.

"I'm still here if that's what yer asking," Jack said with a small slur in his speech. He groaned as he felt a wave wash through him.

"Jack?"

"Captain?"

"You two!" Jack sputtered.

"Aye?" the both asked leaning in. They knew that whatever their beloved captain was about to say was going to be important.

"Remember what I told you," Jack said.

"WHAT!" a female voice screamed.

"Keep quiet woman or you'll wake the dead," Gibbs said looking around as if expecting anything to jump out at them.

"Can't we talk inside?" Anamaria asked.

"And why is that?" Elizabeth demanded.

"Because if you are now the kind of people who value their reputation then they will be the kind of people to invite us pirates in before anyone lingering can say that you were talking to pirates openly," a coarse voice said from within the carriage. They heard the voice cough roughly.

"Fine then," Elizabeth said hauntingly.

Gibbs opened the opposite door of the carriage and gently hoisted Jack on his shoulders so that the man was facing upside down. "I'm not hurting you am I, Jack?"

"Unless I can't feel anymore pain than I already am than I'm afraid that I am not able to feel any pain that you may be putting me through. You may be on your way now," Jack said. He corked the rum and held onto it.

After Elizabeth banished the servants from their living room, she looked at the five pirates before sitting down next to Will.

Will and Elizabeth noticed how unJack-like Jack was the moment Gibbs carried him over his shoulders and into the room. Jack was sitting upright on the couch nearest the fireplace. It was not in use before the pirates arrived, but now it was crackling and Jack seemed warmed by it despite the very hot heat of the Caribbean.

"Is there anything that you would like to drink?" Elizabeth said. She didn't wait for a response and answered for them. "Tea? Water? Oh good."

"Rum," was all Jack said.

"No," Elizabeth said and smiled and remembered how fond the pirate captain was towards rum. Before she left she said,"Excuse me."

Jack uncorked the bottle of rum and took another swig of it.

"Jack!" Will said angrily but grinned.

"Do you want?" Jack asked and passed the bottle next to him. "Unless you're not pirate enough."

Will shook his head and took a small swig from it and tried to pass it back to Jack.

"No. Quickly now pass it around before Elizabeth comes back," Jack said waving his hands away.

He watched as everyone present took a drink before returning it back to him just as the lady of the house returned to them with a tray full of expensive looking china.

"Elizabeth! How nice of you to show us your china," Jack said with a smile. At the corner of his eye he saw Pintel eyeing it. "I suppose you may be wanting my word as captain of the Black Pearl that no one here will be stealing any of your fine accents to your lovely large home.

"I suppose I shall then," Elizabeth said. She handed everyone a cup of tea and let them help themselves to the biscuits. She was about to say something before she heard the china cup shake on its saucer.

All eyes were turned on Jack. He seemed not to notice or care that they were, he put his full determination and effort into trying to steady the cup and saucer. He was spilling tea over his jacket that still covered him.

He took a small sip and said, "Thanks for the tea Elizabeth."

He got up slowly and shakily placed his cup of tea on the table in the middle of them all. The moment he finished placing the tea back, he grimaced in pain and grabbed his gun wound. He felt something wet touch his hand.


	8. Over My Head Cable Car

"Jack!" Elizabeth said this time in surprise and concern.

Will looked at Jack with sadness and all thoughts about the pirate trying to steal Elizabeth from him disappeared when he saw blood seep around the pirates' hand.

"I'm fine. I'm fine," Jack said as if trying to reassure himself more than them. He slumped into the couch before his knees could buckle beneath him. He was pale and shaky. Jack seemed to try to recompose himself with a large, deep sigh. He was still holding his injury.

"Would you like to lie down Jack?" Elizabeth asked him.

"No," Jack said after a moment. He had his kohl-lined eyes closed.

"You really should Captain. You're not looking too well now," Ragetti said. He exchanged looks with Pintel, Anamaria, and Gibbs.

"Lets just say that a young newborn babe has more strength than I, but it would be me that would have the strongest willpower," Jack said. He saw some confused faces. He loved it when people didn't understand him, but he himself is perplexed at how they still don't understand him. "Fine, I'll lay me self down."

"I'll show you to your room then," Elizabeth said getting up.

"Where is Elizabeth?" Jack demanded as he slowly got up.

"Jack I'm right here," Elizabeth said.

"Aye I'm looking at her, but the Elizabeth I know, and possibly care for, would not show me to my room. She would turn me in before I can even enter it." Jack said.

"Fine. I just don't want you stealing. There. Happy now?" Elizabeth said.

"Actually I would like to see your bedroom first," Jack said and gave her a sly smile.

"No," was all Elizabeth said.

Jack pouted and followed her. He didn't want anyone carrying him around anymore. He could make it on his own, right? He was answered when he found himself to be leaning more towards one side than the other and fell to the ground.

"Come on Jack," Gibbs said. He hoisted Jack up and let the younger man lean on him for support.

Elizabeth led Jack and Gibbs through her home as she kept glancing at the corner of her eye is any of them were up to something, but they did nothing but follow her. She showed Jack to his room and let him get settled.

"This bed is dusty and it smells funny," Jack complained when he fell on top of the bed exhausted. "You must have of not paid your housekeepers well."

"Jack! We pay them well enough," Elizabeth said. She didn't comment on the dust or the smell because it was true. This was one of their smaller unused rooms.

"Jack you should rest now," Gibbs said.

"You really should, Jack. You look terrible," Elizabeth said.

They watched as Jack sighed heavily and seemed to think about what to do. "Fine, but not because I am sleepy."

"Okay. We'll be back, Jack," Gibbs said.

"Mm-hmm," Jack said. He nuzzled his face deeper into the pillow.

"Here are a few towels for - " Elizabeth started to say before being cut off by Jack.

"I am not going to take a bath!"

"I wasn't going to say that, but now that you mention it, it would do you some good. You don't want that to get infected," Elizabeth said and handed Jack the towels.

Without looking he just pressed them underneath his wound as he laid facedown on the bed. They heard him mumble something indescribable between the pillows, but they let him be. A moment later Jack was sleeping and the door closed. Elizabeth and Mister Gibbs rejoined the party in silence.

_He saw himself, but he wasn't alone. With him was a strange creature he has only heard of in the stories the old drunks use to tell in Tortuga. He appeared to be talking to the creature or the strange silver and black device tool that the creature was holding in front of him. The place was unfamiliar, along with the scenery from the frosted window. Everything was white outside aside from the occasional green from the strange trees outside. _

_He came to realize that it wasn't him. One, because the man there was not wearing the same clothes or anything similar to his own. Two, his hair was clean and wavy. Three, there was no ship, sea, port, sun, palm trees, or sand to be around. The place seemed cold. Four, the man appeared to be alive or at least more alive than he is now. And Jack knew that his time was coming. Five, the man was talking to that strange creature with the bat-like ears and large bulging green eyes._

_Jack could have ranted about their differences but then he noticed something on the man's bare skin from where the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. As he came closer the unmistaken sparrow tattoo and 'P' brand came clearer. They were exactly identical from Jack's own. He also noticed the many scattered bottles lying around him._

"_Speak to me of pirates and wizards," was all Jack heard from the man, him. The voice sounded tired and he even found it to be seductive .He did notice the lone tear glide down his other self's' cheek before the creature started to speak. He didn't say, move, or even twitch when the creature shook him or when people barged in there with happy expressions. _

"Mister Gibbs what do you mean that Jack is dying? We just saw him almost a year and a half ago. He was fine then," Will said.

Gibbs, Anamaria, Ragetti, and Pintel had just finished explaining to Will and Elizabeth about how Jack came to be dying.

"Aye, but it happened so fast. He was either trying to save that damned bird or have it show us the direction to land."

"It's a wonder he's still alive from what you've said," Elizabeth said struck with the news.

"He's a fighter, or was. He's giving up now, that's what he said."

"But why? After all that trouble we went through to save him only to lose him again," Will said rashly.

"Things have changed, he has changed," Anamaria said.

"So," Elizabeth said trying to sort everything out. "We all know that Jack is going to die really soon. You want him to die peacefully in Port Royal instead of being on the Black Pearl where he belongs. When he does die, you'll give him the pirate burial and you get to sail away with his ship."

"That about sums it up," Anamaria said grimly.

"Oh," Will said. He exchanged a look with Elizabeth.

"So what do you say?" Pintel asked.

"He really needs to find peace outside of the Black Pearl," Ragetti said. "I hope he'll find happiness then."

"All right as long as it's fine with you, Elizabeth," Will said and looked at her.

"But what will the servants think? What if the people here find out that we're keeping a pirate here?" Elizabeth asked.

"Elizabeth, remember when you were between Jack, Norrington, and myself?" Will asked. He gave a small smile when he realized that Jack would have commented something profane to that. "You said that your place was with me. Your father said I was just a blacksmith, but then you said I was a - "

- Pirate," Elizabeth and Will said at the same time.

"I remember," Elizabeth said nodding her head sadly. "Fine."

"Good!" Anamaria said a little happier than expected.

"Thank you," Ragetti and Pintel said nodding their heads approvingly to the young couple before Ragetti's wooden eye popped out.

"Aye it may not be the right thing for Jack, but he'll appreciate your company," Gibbs said. "I suppose we better pay Jack a visit before heading back to the Black Pearl."

Elizabeth nodded and got up to lead the small group to the guest bedroom. When they arrived, Jack was still sleeping.

"Jack," Gibbs nudged and shook his captain awake.

"What? I wasn't sleeping," Jack said immediately. He looked at their blurry faces and let his eyes adjust to the light.

"We're going to the Black Pearl now," Anamaria said.

"Okay. I'll be here then," Jack said. "Make sure the crew swabs those decks and patches her up. When I come back she better be there fully stocked with rum."

"Bye Jack," Anamaria said and waved.

"Bye Captain," Ragetti said teary eyed and hugged Jack.

Jack patted the pirates' back and said, "Go get yerself a glass eye with your earnings."

"Aye, aye," Ragetti said.

"I don't know why we even gave ye up on the first place," Pintel said, also hugging Jack.

"I don't know why I let you two go," Jack said. He looked at Gibbs and said, "Well I suppose you be wanting one also."

"At first I thought against it, but oh shiver me timbers Jack," Gibbs said. He hugged Jack and sniffed back his emotions.

"Well I'm glad that we're all men of feelings, but this is starting to get uncomfortable Gibbs," Jack said after patting the mans' back far too long for comfort between two men who love the feeling of warmth of a woman, and long enough for Jack to take the old salt's flask.

"Aye, sorry about that Jack. Don't know what came over me," Gibbs said. "I guess we should be heading out now. Who knows what the crew has been up to."

Jack watched the pirates leave as Will showed them the door out. He was left alone with Elizabeth.

"Elizabeth, you haven't hugged me yet and this bed is made for more than one," Jack said with a smile that showed the golden caps on his teeth.

"Not this time Jack," Elizabeth said.

"This time? What about next time or the previous time then? I am a man of talent," Jack said.

"Jack?"

"Yes Elizabeth?"

"Go rest."

"For you, anything. Well almost, you did handcuff me to the Black Pearl, but you did kiss me. Still curious?"


	9. Should I Stay or Should I Go

_He was with that strange boy again, Harry. He looked younger and less troubled. He was sitting up on the bed polishing a…broom?_

"_Harry dear! Could you come here a second?" the older red haired woman, Mrs. Weasley yelled from the bottom floor._

"_I'll be there in a second Mrs. Weasley," the boy, Harry, yelled back. He quickly, but lovingly, placed the broom on his cot and let his fingers linger on the handle as he walked out the room. _

_The moment his feet touched the first floor landing, he knew that something was wrong._

"_What is it Mrs. Weasley? Did something happen?" Harry asked starting to worry. _

"_No, no. Nothing is wrong, dear," she said shaking her head softly. Mr. Weasley was next to her. He could see their children sitting in the front yard outside. It looked like they were talking about him from the way they kept glancing at him._

_He could tell from her voice that, that was a lie. He let that slide and gave her his full attention. _

"_Then what is it?" _

"_I don't know how to say this but don't get us wrong, Harry, dear," Mrs. Weasley started to say. _

"_Yes?" _

"_I'm afraid that you'll have to find a new place. It's not safe here," She said. It was half-lying, half-truth, but mostly half-lying._

"_Oh," was all he could say. The two older adults exchanged a look. This wasn't how they thought he'd react._

"_Do you understand, Harry?" Mr. Weasley asked. _

"_Yes, I do understand. My hearing is fine, but why?" He asked dumbfounded._

"_We said it's not safe."_

"_I know that, but I can take care of myself, away from your family, if that is what you want," Harry said angrily. The house seemed to rattle slightly._

"_Harry that's not what we mean. We mean only the best for you," Mrs. Weasley said. She sounded like she was about to cry._

_Harry sighed, frustrated at himself. 'Things are not going as they had hoped,' he thought. "Mrs. Weasley save your tears for someone who you really care about."_

"_Harry, dear -," Mrs. Weasley started to say before getting interrupted by Harry._

"_Don't! Just don't. Just forget I was ever here. I'll be gone before lunch starts. I'll be out of your lives. You know what? I really believed that you guys cared. What an idiot I am," he turned to go up the stairs. He whispered, "Just like my relatives. I must be bad and worthless. I don't belong here or anywhere. Hush you."_

_He darted up the long, uneven steps until he reached the last room on the top. He could hear them coming up the steps before he could close the door with a glow._

"_Harry!" they cried out. _

_He didn't answer them, but instead he flicked the stick, a wand. He mumbled something and everything that belonged to him shrank and disappeared into a trunk. Someone hurriedly pounded on the door, shouting his name. He looked around the room one last time trying to find anything that might have been his, but found nothing. _

_He opened the window and looked behind him. He flicked the wand again and the trunk shrunk, he placed it in one of his pockets. The door rattled and glowed just as he grabbed his broom. Was he going to fly?_

"_Harry! Open the door! We need to explain ourselves!"_

_He waved the wand once more before the whole door broke open. The whole family was there breathing heavily. He started to back away from them._

"_Harry, dear," Mrs. Weasley tried to coax him. _

"_You will always remember that this will be the day that you almost made me believe that I was apart of your family and - " before he could finish, a discarded shirt, most likely one of Ron's, made him slip right out through the open window. _

"_Harry!" they yelled and someone screamed._

_He was reaching the ground fast. Just a few feet away from his untimely death, he remembered the broom and that he can apparate. He quickly scrunched up his face, concentrating hard on where he was going. _

_With a 'pop' he was gone from the Weasley home and fell on the cold wooden floors of his unused room in Number Four, Private Drive in Little Whigning, Surrey. _

"_What was that ruckus?" he heard the large man yell. "That brat better of not had done something!" _

_He was winded from the impact. As his uncle drew closer, he staggered up and leaned against the vacant bedpost. _

"_What are you doing here again? I thought we were through with you and your kind," his uncles' fuming scarlet face bellowed in front of the door when he opened it. _

"_Sorry Uncle Vernon," Harry said automatically. "I needed a place to stay for a day or two." He looked around the room and noticed the blue and white pinstripe wallpaper that came with the white crib full of stuffed animals. _

"_Humph. I bet your freaks kicked you out," Uncle Vernon said crossing his arms. "I knew you'd crawl back to us."_

"_You're partially right, Uncle Vernon. I know we left on neutral terms, but I really need to stay here at least for a week," Harry pleaded. He hated how pitiful he sounded._

"_We put the clothes on your back, a roof over your head, and we gave you our food. Now you come back to us expecting that it will be handed to you freely. No, not this time boy! You will work for it if you want to stay here. It's either chores or you're out of here. Well what do you say boy?" Uncle Vernon asked gruffly._

_Harry was awestruck at his uncle for actually letting him stay. Work sure, but to stay? What has overcome the world? Has he somehow stumbled into a parallel universe? _

"_I'm not going to wait forever boy!" _

"_All right. I'll work for you in exchange for a room in your household. Thank you" Harry said trying to sound not to pleased. _

"_You better be grateful boy! Put your stuff back in the cupboard. You start your chores in five minutes! Go to the kitchen," his uncle said turning around. _

"_What made you let me stay?" Harry asked tentative. _

"_I could change my mind and kick you out in the streets where you belong," Uncle Vernon huffed out._

"_Never mind," Harry said. He waited until his uncle had left to tell his family of their visitor before he enlarged his trunk. He changed into a long sleeved shirt and muggle jeans before he checked himself in the mirror to make sure he looked presentable enough in front of his relatives._

'_What are we doing here now Harry? And why a cupboard?' a slithering voice asked mused._

"_You saw what the Weasleys' did. I needed to go to the last place they'd find me," Harry said trying to smother his hair down._

"_Your hair is too stubborn, so what's the point? Anyways, Harry, we could still sneak back to Salazar's renovated castle that I personally created. Or we could go to my muggle father's home. Only say the word and we're there in a snap," the slithering voice said. There was no visible person in the room with him, but he could feel the man was still with him._

"_No. I need time to think," Harry said waving off the voice. _

"_Whatever happened to the life of fun and adventure you promised me?" the voice asked._

"_It has been delayed, but get back here. No more leaving, it drains me and don't think of overshadowing me," Harry said._

"_As you wish, after all I follow by your rules now. What you say is law," the voice said before it disappeared. _

"_Laws can be broken," Harry mumbled._

_Harry went to the kitchen and got the list of chores he was suppose to finish. He found out that there was a new addition to the Dursley household by the name of Bruno Dursley, the poor babe. It was awkward, but that was erased as he went to do the task at hand. He fixed them their lunch before rushing to the lawn to trim the hedges, mow the lawn, weed the flowerbeds, fix the flowerbeds, water the flowerbeds, put new bricks along the flowerbeds, and the list just kept going on and on with the flowerbeds until it ended with dinner. _

_Whereas the morning was cool with dew in the air, the afternoon was hot and humid. Sweat dripped off his brow and it made the clothing on his back cling to him like a second skin. Frustrated, he stabbed the spade on the ground and peeled the shirt off. He threw that on the ground just as it started to rain. The rain gave him a slight comfort as it pelted his back with small drops of rainwater._

_He kept on working despite the fact that it kept on raining harder and harder. He had to work or else the Dursleys will kick him out. The wind was whipping leaves and twigs at him. Was that a newspaper?_

_"Get a grip Potter. You can handle some wind and rain, it's not like you'll get struck by lightning, right?" he asked himself out loud. "I mean they wouldn't leave me out here expecting me to do all these choirs while they stay inside at the comfort of their home…with their family."_

_"Boy! You're still out here? Get in here now!" Aunt Petunia screeched as she tried to keep the door from blowing away._

_Did he just hear her right? He's not going insane right? They actually wanted him inside? 'It is official folks, I have somehow stumbled into a parallel universe where the Weasleys hate me and the Dursleys care about me,' Harry thought as he grabbed his soaked shirt and headed inside._

_"Just stand there and shut the door boy! I don't want you ruining my beautiful floor again," Aunt Petunia said._

_Harry did as he was told, but when he turned around to close the door he heard his aunt gasp. He looked at her and found that she was pointing at him. He thought there was a stray bug or something on him and he tried to swat whatever it was away. "Is there something on me?"_

_"What happened to your back?" he heard her whisper._

_"Oh, it's nothing too serious," Harry said. He shrugged his soaked shirt on with difficulty._

_"Wait! Let me see and tell me what happened," his aunt said coming towards him. In all his years with living with the Dursleys he has not ever saw them show him kindness and compassion as they are now. What has changed?_

_"You remember the man who killed my parents?"_

Jack woke up and found himself back in a bed naked, where he does not remember getting into.

"Scarlet? Giselle?" Jack whispered hoarsely.

He used his arms to feel for a body that would normally be there for him when he stopped in Tortuga. When he found no such body, he remembered that he was in Port Royal.

"I'm still here?" he mumbled back into the pillow.

His back was starting to feel really itchy. As he went to scratch it, there was something muffling the effects it normally had. He turned his head and found that there was fresh linen cloth serving as his bandage.

"Elizabeth it is not safe for Jack out there," Jack heard whispering to Elizabeth. It sounded like they were on the other side of the door.

"I know, Will, I know," Elizabeth said wearily. "He's a pirate and the East India Trading Company are still hunting after pirates. I just think…"

"You think that he'd be better out there than in here?" Will finished for her.

"Yes, but…"

"But what, Elizabeth?" Will asked making sure he kept his voice low as to not wake up their guest.

Jack heard enough from them. First, his crew and now the two people whom he has regarded almost close to kin, with the exception that he will use them for the opportune moment.

"This is wrong. I don't want to see him die," tears were shimmering in her eyes but they did not fall.

"We've watched him die before," Will said.

"Yes, but last time it was from a distance and it was quick. Last time, I was the one who caused Jack to die. I was the one who chained him to the Black Pearl. I was the one who kissed him to distract him so that all, excluding him, could live. I wasn't sorry back then, but I am now."

Will gasped. This is something that he wanted to know why she kissed him in the first place and now he knew. "But you only did what was best."

"For you. For us. A chance to have a life together. But I think I've caused enough problems for Jack," Elizabeth said hugging Will as he hugged her back.

"I think we each have had our share of causing pain to each other Elizabeth," Will said trying to comfort her.

"But did you see his back when Mary bandaged him? I knew he was branded as a pirate, but I think Lord Beckett went too far with flogging him," Elizabeth said looking into Will's eyes.

"I don't think it was Beckett that did it. Someone called Voldemort carved his or her name or something onto his back. And those weren't any sword lesions I've seen; it looked more like a whip and a blade."

"Why would anyone do that? I mean Jack has done some things in the past, but nothing too bold. Right?"

"Only Jack has the answer to that," Will said. He thought he heard something moving in the room. "Jack? Is that you?"

"Will what is it?"

"I thought I heard movement in there."

"Well he's probably awake now from all this talking," Elizabeth said letting go of Will.

He opened the door to find that the room was empty and that the window was wide open. There was a bed sheet hanging out of it.

"Jack."


	10. Paralyzed

Jack quickly slipped his trousers and ran towards the closest alleyway away from the mansion. Inside the alley, Jack put on his shirt, boots, and his hat.

He felt a wave of nausea hit him and he retched into the bin next to him. After that ordeal, he leaned heavily on the stone walls and closed his eyes. He could feel himself being pulled down by fatigue and sleep, but he opened his kohl-lined eyes with alert. He got up while regaining his usual composure and walked into the streets of Port Royal.

"Have you heard that the young Governor Elizabeth is expecting?" Women gossiped around him like flies near rotten fruit.

"No, she's the one married to that pirate blacksmith?"

"Aye, that be the one."

'Ah. So Elizabeth is pregnant? With Will's child? Certainly not mine, not that we didn't have time. Such dire timing. 'So she made a man out of him yet' said strumpet,' Jack mused in his head.

Jack saw a few familiar faces that weren't killed in the hurricane led by Norrington or in the battle between Davy Jones, pirates, and the East India Trade Co. He turned around and pretended to be in the middle of gossiping with the two-peasant woman while moving his hands fluidly.

After they passed, Jack moved away from them and made his way towards the port part of Port Royal. As he neared the small tunnel that led to the port, the same one where he and Will were at years ago, he swayed into a palm tree as he was hit with another wave of nausea.

"It might be best if ole Jack had a nap," Jack said to himself. He sagged against the palm tree and laid amongst the green grass and the white sand. He let himself relax on the comforting land before drifting to sleep.

"_Ron! Hermione! I think I've found the location of the last Horocrux!" Harry yelled as he sat next to them at the tavern. He looked younger and less troubled as he peered into his friends' faces like a child. _

"'_arry! Am I glad to see you!" Ron said. He draped an arm around Harry and Hermione._

"_Why is that Ron?" Harry asked. He grimaced as he smelled the strong scent of alcohol coming from both of his friends. _

_Ron hiccupped a few times before continuing. "Because we were getting piss drunk without you! Our best mate! To Harry!" Ron raised his jug._

"_To Harry!" Hermione said and knocked hers against Ron's. _

_They both drank heavily into theirs before they passed out and leaned heavily on Harry._

"_Guys?" Harry asked tentatively. He tried shaking them, but that made them press their faces onto the bar counter._

_Ron snored loudly._

"_Excuse me? Barkeep?" Harry asked._

"_Yeah? What can I get ya?" the bartender asked when he reached them._

"_Oh, nothing for me tonight. I was wondering if you knew of an inn around here?" Harry asked. He reached over Hermione and pulled her back up before she could fall._

"_Planning on having a little fun with her or something. Maybe a ménage-a-trois?" the bartender asked smiling evilly and most likely thinking up the scene in his head._

"_Uh…No, not what I had in mind. Just a place where we can stay for the night," Harry said in a tone where it was strictly business. _

"_Ah that's no fun," he picked up a jug and started to clean it with a not-so-clean rag. "Down the road. That's where you'll find your inn 'bout a quarter of a mile here."_

"_Thanks," Harry said. He paid for their drinks and gave a little extra for the information in the current British banknotes courtesy of Gringotts Bank. _

"_Have an entertaining evening," the bartender said to their backs. _

_Harry didn't even look back at the man, but tried to walk with Hermione and Ron leaning heavily against him like they were petrified. If only he could use magic! He put Hermione on his shoulder and held Ron's middle. It felt like gravity was trying to push him into the very core of the Earth! His body strained to keep them from toppling over and sweat beaded down his body slowly. _

"_You. Two. Need. To. Lose. Some. Weight," Harry grunted out._

_He could see the people walking past him offer him no help, but watched as this 17 year old boy strain to carry his two friends. He kept on walking despite the fact that it was a slow journey and that his body ached. A few more yards and he saw the lights of the inn there shining out like a lighthouse. _

_A bellhop opened the door for him and helped Harry put Ron and Hermione in the waiting chairs._

"_Long night, sir?" the bellhop asked._

"_You have no idea. Thanks," Harry said. He wiped the brow from his head and fell back into a seat. _

"_Will you be staying here tonight, sir?" _

"_Yes, well I plan to once I get a room," Harry said huffing slightly._

"_Well welcome to Le Chat Noir de Rêves. I hope your stay will be a pleasant one," the bellhop said giving Harry a small bow._

"_Thank you," Harry said and got up. He went up to the desk and got them a room. Of course he had to lie about his age, name, and the I.D._

"_Enjoy your stay Mr. Evans," the desk manager said. _

_Harry nodded and once again carried his friends up to their room, but this time the same bellhop guy helped him. _

"_Thanks. Again," Harry said smiling._

"_It's what I'm paid for, taking young adults to their rooms. Ah here we are, room 317. Enjoy your stay."_

"_Thanks. Here," Harry said and handed the bellhop some banknotes and some pence. _

"_Thank you," the bellhop said. He took the money and closed the door behind him when he left._

_Harry looked around the room and saw that Ron and Hermione took the two beds, which left him…a chair. There was also a black box on top of a table (a television), another table, a washroom and a bath. _

_He looked at his friends sleeping on their separate cots and shook his head. "Better me sober than drunk."_

_He sat on his chair and had it facing the box as he changed the screen by the touch of a button. He grew bored of whatever was on and he went to the bath to shower. When he came back from the steamed up room he was wearing the same clothes with a towel around his neck, he saw his friends again.  
_

"_Looks like you guys are still where I left you," Harry said. He let his hair stay damp and tried to sleep on the chair._

_After twenty minutes, he couldn't rest. The chair was very uncomfortable and the carpet looked comforting even if it had many stains on it. He couldn't get the location of the last Horcrux out of his head. He had to go there now and see for himself. _

Harry stood up and found the pen and a small pad of paper that were usually around at a hotel, motel, or inn. He wrote:

Ron, Hermione:

If you're reading this, it means that I haven't come back from the last Horcrux and that it must be a dead end, like the last one. I hope you two had fun last night getting piss drunk at an unknown pub with strangers. You should have heard what the bartender was saying, you wouldn't of want to know what was going inside his head…

Anyways, you guys are at some hotel not far from the pub. So if I'm still not back before your hangovers are finished, don't worry. By the way, here's the key to the room. I know, it looks like a exploding snap card.

_Go to the Order, and stay where they tell you to, if anything should happen if I don't happen to return. I don't think that it would be safe if I told you or anyone the location mainly because it could be in the wrong hands and that said person might warn Voldemort a head of time. So sorry ahead of time. _

Take care,  
Harry

He placed the letter on the nightstand between the two slumbering teens. He let his hand linger on the letter before walking out the door.

_He walked out the hotel and strode towards where he thought the last Horcrux was. It wasn't that far from where the tavern was, so it wasn't that bad of a trek. Quite refreshing really.  
_

"_Quite right," Harry said to himself. _

_This could be it! He could be his ticket of getting rid of Voldemort forever. He would avenge all those people who were killed by Voldemort and his Death Eaters. He would find peace for them even if that meant that he would have none. This could be a world of peace, but how long will this peace last? _

Harry stopped his musings when he came in front of a street sign. It read "Spinners End". Harry crept towards a house that looked uninhabited, but he knew that this was the house. From the shadows, Harry could hear whispers coming from the house. As he got closer, his scar twitched in pain until it throbbed.

"_What do you mean they still don't know where that damned brat is at?" the familiar serpentine high and cold voice hissed angrily._

"_I'm sorry, my lord, but it appears that he has disappeared," a cowardly voice said. _

"_Find him! You know what awaits you if you don't! Now be gone!" the serpentine voice, Voldemort hissed._

"_Yes, my lord Voldemort," the Death Eater said before disappearing. _

"_Yesss? What iz it Nagini?" Voldemort hissed like a snake in front of a huge serpent. _

_The huge snake, Nagini hissed back at him. Her hissing was too soft for Harry to hear what she was saying to Voldemort._

"_Really? Ah, that iz great newss," Voldemort hissed back at her. He walked, or rather slithered, away from Harry's view._

_Harry tried to see through the cracks in the boarded up windows, but found that he could not see anyone there. Suddenly, his scar went from throbbing to bursting with pain. He fell on his back and saw Voldemort standing over him with his wand pointed at him. Harry tried to grasp his own wand, but when he did Voldemort kicked it away from his grasp._

"_Now what kind of host would I be if I left you out in the cold? Stupefy," Voldemort said and red light engulfed Harry into darkness._

"_Take him to my new lair," Voldemort said to the newly arrived Death Eater. "But be careful, I don't want my property damaged, yet." _


	11. Mr Brightside

Jack opened a bleary eye and found that he was at the same spot and groaned. 'Is this nightmare ever going to end?' he asked himself. He sluggishly got up and dusted himself off.

What was he doing again? Oh yes, he was going to "borrow" a ship and find where his crew hid the Black Pearl. He could just avoid all that hassle and get a long boat or set off on foot, but to row a long boat? He usually has somebody else do that for him. As for ship, he can captain it or at least threaten the current crew and then have them abandon ship before they reach the Pearl. That sounded better.

Jack walked from the shade that the palm tree provided to the sunny exterior beyond that. He raised his left arm to block the light. The sun seemingly seemed that it directed its rays at his eyes almost blinding him, but he was grateful for the kohl. He was still recovering from being blinded by the sunlight when something, or someone, bumped into him. Jack almost pulled out his pistol, but stopped when he saw who it was.

"I'm sorry mister for bumping into you," a young red haired boy said. He looked no more than eight years old.

"Merry on your way then," Jack said. He looked around cautiously as if expecting someone else to jump out from the shadows that weren't there.

"Please excuse my brother, sir," a petit lady of 17 years came up from nowhere. She stood behind her brother and looked at Jack. Jack couldn't help but stare at her. She wasn't as beautiful as Scarlet, but there was something about her fiery red hair and pale skin that tried to trigger a memory that wouldn't come or wasn't there. Did he find her attractive? She certainly was a lot cleaner than anyone else he has met in a while. He hardly saw any dirt or sweat or even a light tan on her, which was odd even on Port Royal.

"Have we met before?" Jack asked. He definitely was not smitten with the young girl.

"I don't believe we have sir," she moved closer to her brother as if to protect him from Jack. "We just arrived at Port Royal the previous day and were looking around."

"And what are your whereabouts? England?" Jack asked. He eyed her suspiciously.

"Yes, my brother and I were born in England, but most of my family are in Ireland," she said looking uncomfortable under Jack's gaze.

"Is it true that there are pirates here?" the young boy asked, not at all intimated by Jack's gaze or his clothing.

"Philip!" the older sister whispered a warning. "There are no pirates in Port Royal."

"Aye, but don't always believe what you hear. So what 'ave you heard?"

"But –" the young girl started to protest.

"They smell really bad and that they wear rags and have drably faces! They also have a very colourful bird with them and they have a ship!" the boy said excitedly.

"How would ye like to meet one?" Jack asked.

"That'd be a very scandalous thing to do! I have heard that the late Governor's daughter, now the Governor here, has had numerous run-ins with pirates and that she married one, the former blacksmith. People are saying that she might be one herself. Can you believe that?" the young girl said gossiping.

"Aye, I can," Jack said.

"Also, why would anyone want to meet a pirate? They are treacherous beings that should not have the dignity of calling themselves human," she continued.

"Right you are, love," Jack commented and gave a small laugh.

"So what is a distinguished gentleman such as yourself doing out here in the summer?"

Jack grinned when she called him a "distinguished gentleman". "I was heading towards me ship, but seeing as how my crew hid her from me I have to find her. So I will need the assistance of one of these ships here. Sadly, the Interceptor is not with us today," Jack said looking down and seemed genuinely sad that the ship wasn't.

"I'm sorry to hear that, Captain," the girl said.

"But seeing as the company before me is far more enjoyable than my crew, you should drop that brother of yours home and I could show you ways…"

The young girl was clueless as to what Jack was implying and gave him her clueless smile. That made Jack grin even wider. Times like this made Jack want to be surrounded by young virgin strumpets.

"Sorry, Captain, but we are due back home to help with kneading the dough for this evenings supper," she said sadly, but gave him that smile.

Maybe not…

"Ah, so you are experienced with your hands then?" Jack asked innocently to the innocent children before him.

"Aye! So is Philip, my brother," she added proudly.

If just a little, that put Jack off from his plan. He frowned.

"Is something wrong, Captain?"

"Aye," Jack said. "Something is dreadfully and drastically wrong."

"I'm sorry to hear that. If there was something I could do for our dear Captain…"

'Aye, but there is young lass,' Jack thought. "Perhaps you could take me to your home and I can watch you knead the _bread_."

"Terribly sorry, Captain. Me gran has got the scurvy. We think she got it from the pirates she met years ago or from some other diseased persons."

Jack made a face and ran his tongue between his teeth. He slowly took a few steps away from them. "Dreadfully sorry to hear that miss. Perhaps I know these said pirates. Well off on your merry way now," Jack said disappointed. 

"Yes. Have a good day Captain and I hope you find your ship," she said before departing with her brother.

Jack sighed and shook his head sadly at the prospect of not _dying a happy man in bed_. "Philosophical Jack? I must be getting old, think of that," Jack said to himself. He walked between the small beach sand and the small tide coming in.

He closed his eyes. He could still hear the cannons and pistols firing, swords grinding next to each other, the waves hitting against the wood of the ships, men grunting from the strain of one another, their screams, and the roar of the kraken.

When he opened his eyes he found himself still in Port Royal. There was no carnage on the island unless for their livestock. There was no smell of smoke, fire, or blood thick in the air. There was only the salty sea air.

"Where could he possible be?" Elizabeth asked. She had her arm linked with Will's trying to keep up with appearances and find the missing pirate.

"Where else would he be?" Will asked. If he knew Jack there was one place that the older pirate would never part with.

"We were there an hour ago," Elizabeth began, but she let Will lead her to the docks.

It has been about two hours since Jack disappeared from their mansion. They found some blood drops on the walls and floor of an alleyway, but their trail soon disappeared from site.

"Good evenin' miss, sir," one of the newly imported officers said nodding at them.

"Good evening," they said politely and kept on walking.

At first, they faintly heard something. The closer they got to the docks, the louder the commotion was. The dock was alive with landlubbers and they weren't even leaving Port Royal.

"Did you see what that pirate did?" two young boys talked adamantly in front of Elizabeth and Will.

They looked at each other and said, "Jack."

They pushed their way through the crowd since no one was paying attention to those around them. When they reached the front of the crowd, they were not surprised to see a certain Captain Jack Sparrow.

Will and Elizabeth tried to move past a mean looking officer of the Royal Navy with his gut trying to break free of his uniform.

"Madam, I am afraid that I can not permit you to enter here," an officer said.

"As the Governor of Port Royal I request to see the pirate," Elizabeth said as she let go of Will's arm. She was trying not to be on a first name basis with Jack in front of the new recruit.

"And if I don't?" the officer asked cockily. He thought that a _woman_, no matter what her status was, is not higher than his.

"Then I can discharge you from Port Royal and from all the Caribbean Islands," she said making up the last part.

The officer was about to slap Elizabeth, but he was caught off guard when a tanned hand stopped him and the elbow caught him on the stomach.

"You didn't have to do that," Will said smiling at Elizabeth. He tried to protect Elizabeth, but in situations like this she can handle herself. After all, when you've been duel sword fighting with pirates, a slap from an officer who has never faced a pirate before today should be nothing.

People whispered and gossiped around them.

"That will be enough!" a strict voice cut through the air. "You are not to strike Miss Swann! Let her through."

The officer pushed Elizabeth towards the voice and she almost fell. He was rewarded with three fists on his face giving him a broken nose, black eye, and a swollen lip.

"That was uncalled for! As your commanding officer, you will be on the first ship back to England where you will be discharged from the Royal Navy and if you resist, you will be hanged for your actions," the man said. That said man is the new Commodore Harris Norrington, the brother of the late Commodore James Norrington. He followed in his brothers' footsteps in the Royal Navy; hopefully he doesn't end it like the older Norringtons' had.

"Thank you," Elizabeth said and everyone watched as he was taken away.

"It is my job, Miss Swann, but please don't try to rile the men or the pirate," he said.

"May we see him?" Elizabeth asked. She had as much influence on him as she did on his older brother. They were both captivated by her beauty.

"Certainly, but do watch out. This one appears to have been insane for quite some time. The way he says things!" the young Commodore said to her.

He led them a few feet away from where they were at and found Jack in the middle being surrounded by the officers. They had their weapons trained on him.

"Ah! You're here! Mind telling these fine gentlemen that I was just passing through?" Jack asked with his hands raised in front of him.

"Passing through? You were about to steal that longboat!"

"No, no. You have got it all wrong, mate. I was going to "borrow" that longboat," Jack said quickly pointing to the longboat next to the other longboat.

"Borrowing or not, you have made a grave mistake and it will be corrected at dawn tomorrow," Commodore Harris Norrington said.

Jack had a grim smile on his face. He started to slowly back away while hunching. "Well, then. I think that you might that this will be the day that –"

"No! Don't listen to him!" Elizabeth said quickly ignoring Jack's get-a-way speech. She did not want to have another repeat of last time. At least she didn't faint from the lack of oxygen going through her brain because of that corset.

"Blast it," Jack mumbled to himself. He noticed that everyone has their eyes on Elizabeth now and that this is the opportune moment.

"Will," Elizabeth whispered. She pushed him in front of her.

"What?" he asked. He turned to her and looked back at the crowd before him and grimaced. "Well, you see. Jack is no one really. He is just a distant cousin of mine, from his aunt's nephew twice removed. You know, that sort of thing," Will said remembering what Jack said after Will revealed himself to be Bootstrap Bills only son.

"So if he is your distant cousin, then why is he here in Port Royal?"

"Because he needed a place to stay," was all Will could say.

"There are taverns and inns he could of taken," the Commodore persisted.

"Aye, but I wanted to spend me last moments with my only family left," Jack said. He straightened out his back when they found him trying to sneak off. Jack went over towards Will and gave him a big brotherly hug and patted Will's back roughly.

"He wanted to be with the family he never knew," Will said.

"He bit one of my men."

"What can I say? I was hungry," Jack said.

"He kicked sand in their faces."

"Me leg twitched."

"He waves his arms around when he runs and screams, it was all in a comical matter."

"Doesn't everyone?"

"He –"

"Enough!" Elizabeth said "Thank you Commodore for finding Will's distant cousin. From all the excitement this evening, I think it would be best if everyone were to retire."

"Of course. Please excuse me of my actions, Governor Swann," Commodore Norrington said.

"Of course, Commodore Norrington. I will be taking our charge back home now where he will be properly treated and under watch. Good night," Elizabeth said.

"Commodore Norrington? Bugger. I thought he was killed," Jack said thinking out loud. He didn't even notice the glare that the new Commodore Norrington gave him.

"That would be my older brother, James Norrington. I am Harris Norrington," he said and held out his hand to Jack.

Jack eyed the seemingly harmless hand. He shook it briefly, but the young commodore wouldn't let go.

"That is a very fine grip you have Mister?"

"Smith," Jack said trying to give an innocent smile. Unfortunately, the gold caps in his teeth didn't make things better, it just made the commodore more suspicious.

"Mister Smith then. Have you had any run-ins with pirates then?"

"I might of. What's it to ye?" Jack asked. His arm was getting tired of shaking the other mans.

"I find it very anomalous that you should end up here in Port Royal the day after Tortuga was raided."

"That so? Will is a very distant relative of mine."

"Why haven't we heard of any word of your arrival? Certainly even a whisper of your comings."

"Spur of the moment," Jack said.

"Like that tattoo of a sparrow on your arm or the brand on the other?" Norrington inquired and tightened his grip on Jack's hand. "Pirate. My brother James has spoken of you numerous times before his untimely demise in sea, Mister Sparrow."

"Ah the roots do grow deeper I see," Jack said smiling grimly.

"What does that –" Commodore Norrington started to say.

"Please pay him no attention," Elizabeth said.

"So do your loyalties lie with pirates then?" he asked quickly turning towards her.

"My loyalties are with my fiancée," was all Elizabeth said. She stood next to Will and Jack, which broke the commodore's hold on Jack.

"I see," was all the commodore said looking at Elizabeth in the eye.

In that moment, Elizabeth wondered if the Norrington brothers knew how much they acted the same. How much did James tell Harris about Elizabeth, Port Royal, Will, pirates, Jack Sparrow, his life after he lost his men, and if he had any time, his dealings with the East India Trading Co. and Davy Jones. For a second, Elizabeth thought he was almost exactly like James.

"Men, fetch the irons and then escort Mister Sparrow to his holding cell," Harris said while looking at Elizabeth in the eye.


	12. Everybody's Changing

"Commodore! I really must protest," Elizabeth said.

"I may ask to why you are protesting, but I will just assume that it has something to do with this pirate," Commodore Harris Norrington said. His expression was unreadable.

"Because he's sick," Elizabeth said.

"Yes, we all know how sick in the mind most pirates are Governor Swann," he said.

"He may have a point there," Jack said.

"I mean it," Elizabeth said and gently held the commodore's hand.

He didn't break her hold over him and he said, "He does not seem to be tired."

"Took a few naps earlier for me beauty sleep," Jack said grinning.

"You will need a few more then, Jack," Will said.

Jack was about to say something, but Elizabeth "accidentally" grinded her heel on his boot. While the two talked, this gave Jack time to look for his leave if things didn't go as they had hoped. After a brief scan of the area Jack found that there was no way out, unless he pushes both Will and Elizabeth towards most of the Port Royal officers he could probably roll out from under the unsuspecting men, run, swim in the sea, and hope not to drown or get eaten by hungry fish. 

Jack looked around once more incase he missed something. It looked like he did or did he? He caught site of a middle-aged couple, a man with flaming red hair and a woman with brown hair. Somehow, they looked familiar. Were they looking at him?

"I meant that he is dying," Elizabeth said.

"He was shot a few days ago," Will added.

"If he was, he would be dead by now," Norrington said. With Elizabeth holding his hand, he used the other to motion for the officers to wait.

"He has a way for delaying death," Will said.

"As well as having a way for being a pirate," Norrington said back.

"Harris, please," Elizabeth said gently. She hoped that her charm worked on the younger Norrington. "Look at how pale he is for a man who is around the Caribbean sun everyday."

"I agree with you, but he could have easily stayed in Europe."

"True, but Jack isn't like that. Here look at this then," Elizabeth said. She held onto Harris' hand and brought it up to where Jack's wound was. "Elizabeth," Jack hissed as he felt something move past his shirt and then warm hands touch his cool skin before touching the makeshift bandage. His eyes briefly rolled in the back of his head as the wound became enflamed. Before it was numbed from the pain and actually forgetting about it until Elizabeth showed the commodore. He opened his eyes and saw that Will had his arm across his middle and he was leaning heavily onto the younger man. 

"Do you see Commodore? It is either dying painfully and slowly by this or the gallows," Elizabeth said.

Harris was wiping his bloodied hand on a handkerchief. "Yes, I do see. Never have I seen any man, pirate or sailor, who has not fallen over dead from a fatal wound from that. They all die in the end though. I will permit you and Mr. Turner here to play host for this fallen pirate, but there will be troops patrolling your estate and the area around it more frequently."

He finished wiping his hand and looked at Jack. "You should be grateful for this young woman's hospitality and not take it for granted. If I heard that you have used it to your advantage, then you will be taken straight to the gallows. You are under house arrest and dismissed."

Jack made a face that was mixed with pain and something unpleasant.

"Thank you Commodore Norrington," Elizabeth said trying to ignore the face that Jack made at Harris.

"I can see why my brother fancied you," Harris whispered to her and kissed the knuckles of her hand gently. "Please, use my coach for tonight. If only for tonight…"

Elizabeth looked away and looped her arm around Will's opened one. Will nodded at Harris and left with the love of his life and the man who helped him get his "bonnie lass". With a nod from the commodore, they were surrounded.

"Certainly, Commodore Norrington. It would be a pleasure. I bid you goodnight," Elizabeth said trying to sound pleased.

"Men, escort and make sure no harm comes to Miss Elizabeth and her _friends_ on their journey home."

They, everyone, complied with Commodore Norrington.

"This is dreadful," Elizabeth said looking out the window.

"Aye, we can agree to that," Jack said.

"I didn't think that Commodore Harris Norrington was going to let Jack go," Will commented.

"Aye again Will. I think this little bonnie lass of ours is a witch that binds handsome men, like me self, into doing her behest," Jack said. He tried to crawl further into the plush cushioned corner.

"Do you find Harris and myself handsome then?" Will asked.

"Aye and no. The both of ye are handsome in your own special ways that only Elizabeth seems to find flattering."

Elizabeth looked at Jack and said, "Jack, I never knew that you evaluate the way people look especially since you're a -"

"Pirate? One who is surrounded by stench and filth? Well let me tell you this, it gets very lonely out on sea…surrounded by men mostly," Jack said looking at his dirtied nails.

"Jack are you saying that you've bedded one of your mates?" Will asked. He was curious, but disturbed.

"Where do you think the term "mate" comes from, eh?" Jack asked seriously, but the look in his eyes was far from being serious. "But no, I haven't. Yet."

"So -," Will started to ask.

"Maybe we should talk about this another time. It has been a very long day and I am exhausted from all that has happened," Elizabeth said.

"Aye. Then I will tell you who has taught me some French before he kicked me out with his _lettre de cachet_," Jack said sighing. "Maybe I can teach you the French ways, Elizabeth. Perhaps dear Will here, needs some more education in wooing the bonnie lass."

'He?' Elizabeth mouthed to Will. He only shrugged.

Minutes passed by and Jack started to nod off to sleep. When his eyes finally closed without him knowing, he was rudely awakened by a bump in the dirt road and it stopped.

"Whoa there! We're here!" the coachman said. Will and Elizabeth thanked him as he prepared to drive back to his master.

As they got out of the carriage Jack had some difficulty trying to find the step and he almost tripped if it weren't for the unsuspecting officer that happened to be there at the right moment.

"Thanks mate," Jack said. He patted the mans' back as he straightened up. He slowly jogged, more like walk, to Will and Elizabeth at the main door. "So what's the plan?"

"The plan is to eat dinner quietly and retire for the evening," Elizabeth said as she strode inside.

"Still mad about the whole reputation thing here, love?" Jack asked. He looked like he was causally leaning against the staircase railings, but he was using it as a strut.

"Mad! This whole thing is barmy even you, Jack Sparrow," Elizabeth yelled in his face.

"Me? I was nothing but an innocent bystander during the whole incidents," Jack said trying to redeem himself.

"Incidents!" Elizabeth yelled again. She felt like she could strangle Jack at that moment.

"Elizabeth, why don't we all eat dinner now? I'm pretty sure that Jack is famished from what Gibbs said about their storage," Will said from the entrance hall.

"All right," Elizabeth said gently to Will with a soft smile for him. She looked at Jack with disapproval and said, "Don't."

"Whatever says you, love," Jack said. He led Elizabeth and to their dining room, even though he has never set foot in their home. It was as if he were the host and they the guest.


	13. Downfall

"Will," Elizabeth said softly next to the man she loves. She called his name again when he didn't respond.

"Yes? What is it Elizabeth?" Will asked after being deep in thought. He crawled into bed next to her and held her close to him as if afraid of losing her.

"Jack is not plaguing your mind is he?" Elizabeth asked and studied Will's face.

"As he is not plaguing yours?" Will said slightly frustrated at the situation. "This man is being left to die in a place where he doesn't even want to be. This is worse than being marooned or being at the gallows."

"How is that so? Will, Jack did not have a choice in the matter with Harris Norrington and his men surrounding us. We did what was appropriate for him given the circumstances," Elizabeth said.

"But this isn't the way Jack is. He is not the kind of person who would just sit here waiting for death to claim he. He would either run or fight it, but in the end he always fights. Now here he is, Captain Jack Sparrow, left to die like some sort of old man who is nearing his time. I don't like it."

"I don't like the concept in that either Will, but we might as well make his passing better than his previous," Elizabeth said sadly.

"This whole thing is not right. Jack will find a way," Will said. He snuggled deeper into the bed despite the humidity.

"He always does," Elizabeth said. They both lapsed into silence and slowly drifted off to slumber what was left of the night.

_Before the young man was a dead man. The young man looked like he had not had a decent meal in a long time considering that he had a thin frame. Nor did it look like he had that much personal hygiene since his hair was up to his elbows, it looked matted and filthy, and he needed to trim the small beard that formed on his face. If you looked into his eyes you would notice how they were the greenest of greens on anyone's eyes, but behind those lovely eyes reflected something animalistic. He looked like a man who had **escaped prison** **or rather Hell. **_

_Harry breathed heavily and stared at the corpse ahead of him, he saw something forming by the corpse. To the naked eye it just looked like a small dust cloud with bits of it still swirling about, but Harry knew better. He knew that it was Voldemort's spirit. Harry raised his wand high in the sky and muttered something under his breath. He erected a barrier to keep him and the spirit inside, but that meant that the spirit had only one place to go. _

"_Harry, Harry," a hissing voice said. It came from the spirit. It seemed to sigh deeply. "You are not making this any fun. Where else am I to go to but your dying body?"_

_Harry gasped from the large gash on his chest. Where a once flawless torso was, an angry red mass of shredded tissue lies from the clavicle to the floating ribs. His eyes seemed to glaze over, but he was still breathing painfully. His mind raced with thoughts._

"_What is it, Harry? Do you have something to say?" Voldemort hissed mockingly. _

"_Deal," Harry managed to utter out loud from his rambling thoughts. He staggered back to the edge of the barrier._

"_What sort of deal are you bargaining for? Your soul? Your friends? I would say family, but I seemed to have killed them all off. Unless you count that muggle family your mudblood mother still has," Voldemort laughed._

"_A proper duel."_

"_Well this doesn't seem at all proper for my tastes. A proper one would be that of a small arena of some sort with hundreds of wizards watching. So that when I kill you, the world will be mine and I can kill them off also. Hardly any purebloods left without them tampering around with those muggles and mudbloods. Harry you seem to have forgotten that you're dying and I'm just a spirit now." _

"_No. Years from now. Proper duel then," Harry choked out the words. The metallic coppery taste of blood reached his mouth. A spittle of blood dripped down the corner of his mouth. "We will have the adventure that you always wanted to experience and I will show you the way."_

"_Adventure? Your life started and ended with adventures that I caused. What makes you think that I would want that?"_

"_Because. You're bored and find that you can torture me in better ways than putting me in that time room."_

"_That is a sad reason, but true. I would hate to end my life in marriage. Fine. You do know what you're asking for right, Harry Potter? You will be jeopardizing both our lives for this little adventure."_

"_Anything for a proper duel to see who the better wizard is?"_

"_I know who the better is," Voldemort said. He paused for a moment as if calculating what could go wrong and what would be in his favor. "I, Lord Voldemort, accept your proposition, Harry James Potter."_

_Harry gritted his teeth from either the pain or what he knows is immoral. He nodded his head weakly despite those of those facts. He had to find a way to destroy Voldemort once and for all. _

_He didn't hear Voldemort's spirit mutter the words that would bind them until it was too late. Red light engulfed the spirit and the young man's body within the barrier._

"_He's been missing for five weeks now! Hasn't the Order had any leads on him?" the youngest of the Weasley clan asked furiously. She wanted to kick the Hogwarts stonewalls down to find Harry Potter, but Hermione was in the way._

"_Don't worry. We're as anxious as you, Ginny," Hermione said trying to comfort her._

"_How dare you say that. If you and Ron weren't drunk and don't give me that look I knew you two were drunk on the night that Harry went out. I knew I should have gone with you guys to keep an extra eye out for all of you, but if Harry hadn't reasoned with me the previous night I would have," Ginny seethed as they walked out onto the Grounds. She hated how bright and cheery the day was._

"_Ginny, you know that we had no control of what happened. One minute we were fine and Harry was with us, and then the next minute Ron and I find ourselves in a strange hotel room. We thought we were kidnapped first until we found Harry's note," Hermione said trying to calm and reason herself down._

"_Well this is just bloody ridiculous!" Ginny yelled frustrated at the events. "Good morning, Professor Firenze."_

"_Good morning, Miss Weasley. Miss Granger. If you studied the stars last night and paid attention in class, it would of told you of the turning of the war has come to our favor. Good day," the centaur said before moving along._

" '_Turning of the war has come to our favor'?" Hermione repeated. _

"_What does he - " Ginny started to ask before she realized what he meant. She squealed, "Harry! He's done it!" _

"_But where is he? Shouldn't someone of told us?"_

"_Maybe he's hurt…"_

"_Girls please move out of the way!" Professor Sprout yelled. She seemed to be directing a floating stretcher towards the castle._

"_Who's hurt?" They jogged with their professor._

"_I don't know. Probably some Death Eaters cruel joke. I found them lying on the path from Hogsmeade. One is dead and the other faintly has a heart beat," the elder woman panted as they made it to the hospital wing. She thought that they were old enough to handle the news. "They need to put this wing in a more convenient place." _

"_Sorry Pomona. Who is this?" Madame Pomfrey asked. "Here move him on that bed and the other next to him."_

"_I'm afraid you can't help this poor man. He's dead. Girls go get Professor McGonagall and tell her that it is an emergency."_

"_Yes, ma'am," they said and left to get the headmistress of Hogwarts._

"_Do you recognize him Minerva?" Professor Sprout asked when she arrived. Remus Lupin was with her. _

"_He is in a stupor, but I haven't woken him yet seeing as how I haven't finished examining him. He has lost a lot of blood from multiple wounds and his back is shredded and almost mangled to the point of paralysis, but it is treatable. Five of his ribs has been damaged with punctured both lungs. I haven't finished checking on him yet, but this man has been through a lot." _

"_Sirius?" Remus muttered. His eyes went wide as he took in the long elbow-length dark hair, pale skin, the small scruffy beard, thin frame, and he would also have to say insanity. _

"_Black? But he's dead Remus," McGonagall tried to reason with him. _

"_It has to be him, but how did he come back?" Remus said faintly, but he regained the hope that he almost lost when Harry was captured._

"_Then who is that?"_

"_Are you all daft?" Remus suddenly blurted out loud. "It's Voldemort!"_

_Madam Pompfrey and Professor Sprout both gave a small scream as Professor McGonagall pulled out her wand. _

"_Where?"_

"_On the other bed," Remus said simply. He regretted calling them daft, but he didn't apologize._

"_If You-Know-Who is there and Black is here, then where in Merlin's hat is Harry Potter?" _

"_I don't know!" _

_Three days later they still have not found any word of Harry Potter. The wizarding world rejoiced when they found out that Voldemort was dead and everyone, but the Daily Prophet reporters, had been given the whole week off. The search for Harry Potter was still on. _

_It wasn't until the third day of being found did the still form of 'Sirius Black' begin to wake up. Remus Lupin was the first to see the signs of the man waking up since he was seated right next to the cot like a loyal dog, or rather wolf._

"_Sirius?" Remus whispered._

"_Sirius? He's alive?" the scratchy voice asked. It sounded nothing like Sirius. _

_Remus handed him a goblet of water and felt the blood drain from his face as he realized that his best friend was not alive. "Who are you?"_

"_Thanks for the water Remus," the voice sounded much smoother and in a way hissing. He turned his head so that he was facing Remus with his emerald green eyes. "You don't recognize me? It's been five years for me, but a mere five weeks for you guys…"_

Jack woke up in a world of mental pain and physical numbness. Without getting up from the bed he looked out the window and from a large gap between the curtains saw that the morning sun was hardly even rising.

He tried to get back to sleep, but that dream and the pain from the wound kept him awake. It would be at least another hour until even the servants woke up to do their masters requests.


	14. Seeing Red

"Miss Swann. Mister Turner," their manservant, Edmund, strode into their open bedroom door.

"What time is it?" Will's muffled voice came from the pillow.

"Sir, it is almost time for breakfast," Edmund said. He stated, "You have overslept."

"How may we help you?" Elizabeth asked. She threw on her robe. Her eyes tried to adjust to the light as Edmund moved the heavy draperies to the side.

"Helping you is my job Miss Swann," Edmund said with a smile. He didn't like being informal with the head of the house. "There is a Mister and Misses Prewett here to see you."

"_Prewett_? I'm afraid I don't recall them," Elizabeth said distractedly.

"Shall I escort them to the front door?"

"No," Elizabeth said slowly. She looked out the window and saw that it started to rain heavily. "Breakfast you said? Perhaps they would like to join us."

"Shall I wake up your guest?"

'Guest?" Elizabeth thought. Her mind wasn't as awakes her body was. "Oh you mean Jack. No, let him rest."

"Miss?"

"It is better if we have Jack Sparrow sleeping. I like a quiet breakfast," Elizabeth said though that was just one of the reasons why she wanted the pirate getting his rest.

"Will that be all?" Edmund asked deadpanned.

"No, sorry to keep you waiting," Elizabeth said earnestly.

Edmund did a little bow and left. Maids entered from where he exited. They politely ushered the still sleepy Will out the door so that they can dress their mistress.

"Sorry to have kept you waiting," Elizabeth said after the maids have finished with her.

"Not at all Miss?" an man in his mid-thirties extended his hand to her. He had red hair, freckles, and skin that were pale in contrast to Elizabeth's fair skin. He stood up from the chair that he was sitting on.

"Swann," Elizabeth said giving her hand to the man. She was surprised when he just shook it as if he were shaking hands with a man. "Please help yourselves to tea and biscuits."

"Oh thank you. Miss Swann I was just telling Mister Swann - "

"He would be Turner." "I'm Turner." Elizabeth and Will said at the same time trying to correct Will's last name.

The man looked at the ground and his face turned red in embarrassment. "Sorry."

"It's all right," Elizabeth and Will said at the same time. They looked at each other with a smile.

"You're not married?" a woman behind him asked. She also appeared to be in her mid-thirties and had pale skin like the man next to her, but she had brown bushy hair and no freckles.

"We were supposed to be married two years ago. We were also married on a ship a year ago by a captain, but there was a certain problem. We were going to get married here again, but our plans have changed. But we needn't be married to know that we love each other," Elizabeth said smiling sadly.

"They say three is the magic number," the woman said. "But where are our manners? I'm Hermione Prewett, this is my husband Ron Prewett, and these are our children Philip and Endora," she pointed to them as she said their names. The children looked more like the father than the mother with their flaming red hair and pale skin.

"It's a pleasure to meet you all," Will said.

"Yes," Elizabeth said nodding. Something inside Elizabeth knew that something big was going to happen and she felt a little untrustworthy of having strangers in her home. Something strange is going on, as if they were _spelled _by something. She remembered something. "Please would you care to join us for breakfast?"

"Certainly, if it is not a problem with them," Mrs. Prewett said.

Mr. Prewett's stomach rumbled in response. He nodded as his face turned red in embarrassment again.

"Rosemary, would you mind setting the table to six? Our guests will be joining us for breakfast today."

"Certainly miss," Rosemary, a maid, said. She did a little bow and left the room.

Jack was still awake by the time Will and Elizabeth were talking to the Prewetts. He couldn't get the image of the boy, Harry, out of his mind. Did these events happen all ready or are they in the future? The clothing styles looked familiar, but he doesn't remember seeing anyone with that, from noblemen to pirates. Was Harry real or were Jack imagining things? Something was uneasy, but Jack couldn't tell if it was a gut feeling or the feeling in his gut, the pain.

Jack just lay on the bed thinking and trying to conserve whatever strength he had left. He had long since kicked the covers off from the heat, but now he wished he had them back to fight against the chill he was getting. He knew he was bleeding again and he had to change it. If only someone checked up on him and changed it. He knew he was suppose to die and without any medical jargon from the doc's, but they could at least throw him a scrape of cloth.

He slowly swung his legs over the bed so that he was sitting on the corner and got up. He staggered over to the dresser and looked at himself at the mirror hanging above it. This was not the face of Captain Jack Sparrow he was use to. This was but just a reflection. A very, very impaired reflection.

"You don't look to well, mate," Jack said to his pale, sweating reflection.

'_You don't look well yourself, mate_,' his reflection said back.

'_Wait. Where did that voice come from?_' Jack thought. Out loud he said, "Who's there?"

All he could hear were the footsteps walking around the household, silver clattering on expensive china and porcelain, and the muffled talking on the other side of the door from the guards, but they didn't sound like him. At least he doesn't think so.

Jack grimaced and ignored what just happened. He took his shirt off and let the material fall from his hands as he inspected the wound. It was as bloody as ever, but more bruised looking. Not a sign of it closing up, but he imagined that he could probably sew it back. It wasn't that deep, but it wasn't that wholesome either. So no to that.

He had to change the wrappings or else he'd bleed all over Will and Elizabeth's stuff. He doubted he wouldn't get away from that, even after death. He decided to make his way towards what looked like the washroom from across the guestroom when Elizabeth showed him the room. He threw his shirt back on and slowly walked unsteadily towards the door.

Jack smiled grimly at the two guards standing by his door, but he doesn't look at them. "Morning, mates."

"Now where are you off to?" one of them asked.

Jack didn't answer them. Instead, he walked a few paces to the room across from his and shut the door in front of their faces before they could stop him.


	15. Take On Me

For a moment, Jack leaned against the door with his eyes closed. The room felt like it was spinning around him. He covered his face with his hands as if trying to block what was happening. He regained his composure and looked at the dimly lit room. There were only the walls, the rain splattered window, two candelabrums with three candles each, towels hanging on a rack, some dressing cloths from the previous day most likely, and a white three-legged porcelain tub.

Outside, lightning flashed and cackled through the raging storm. Shadows formed around the room, playing with Jack's mind. He shook himself and swiped the shirt away in one fluid moment.

"And really bad eggs," Jack mumbled when he just dropped the shirt on the clean floor. "Drink up me hearties, yo ho. That's pretty catchy."

Jack grabbed the dressing cloth from the stand and fumbled to wrap it around him. Once he was satisfied with it, he noticed how the somewhat whitened cloth had many light brown stains on it. They almost looked like fingerprints. Jack looked at his hands and saw that they were indeed filthy. He looked back at the dressings and found that blood seeped through the cloth forming dots that soon joined into one large one that stained the cloth.

"I think I'll be needing a few more," Jack said grimly. He tore off the makeshift bandage and hastily grabbed more of the dressing cloths.

Jack sat on the rim of the three-legged tub and looked at the cloth. He looked like he deciding whether or not he should throw another on him only for it to be soaked through. Instead, he laid his back on the two sides of the tub's rims and he set the dressing cloth on the wound. He didn't feel like wasting all that energy to put the cloth on. Jack could feel himself bleeding slowly, his life being wasted away because of the sparrow that flew away. The blood drips down onto the bottom of the tub splattering the white tub red.

"Where does it all come from?" Jack wondered out loud.

He has been like this for days and yet he seems to have an endless amount of blood. He has shot men in various ranges and yet they have fallen on the spot, but he was different. Jack didn't know if this was Tia Dalma's doing, a very late after effect of the cursed gold of Cortez, or because he already died. It certainly wasn't the gold's doing because Barbossa and some of his crew died that night, but Barbossa did come back from the dead because of Tia's doing. Perhaps some _wizard _or something cursed him.

Jack grabbed something from the inside of his sash and found Gibbs flask. He looked around suspiciously before taking a long and final swig from the now empty flask. He let the rum numb the thoughts from his mind as darkness clouded over him.

"Jack," Elizabeth pounded on his door.

No one answered from the other side of the door. It was unnaturally quiet in there.

"Governor Swann," one of the officers said getting her attention. She hated it when people referred to her as that, it made her think of her father.

"Yes? You wouldn't happen to know why Mister Sparrow refuses to answer my calls?"

"As a matter of fact, we do."

Elizabeth cocked an eye and turned her full attention to the somewhat older man, but lesser authority. Scenarios played out in her mind as to what Jack could have conned or tricked these men into doing for him.

"He hasn't escaped if that is what you were thinking," the second officer said quickly.

"He went to take a bath, we believe," the first officer said nodding towards the door besides Elizabeth.

"That was perhaps ten minutes ago. We thought he needed his privacy. He didn't look too well," the second officer said.

"But the chambermaids have not prepared the water for our guest. There is nothing of value for Jack...The window! Jack Sparrow!"

No one answered on the other side of the door and it was quiet in there also. She thought she saw a flicker of the candle light inside there under the crack in the door.

"Jack, are you decent? I'm coming in," Elizabeth said.

She realized that this is what Jack might have wanted: for her to see him naked. She hesitated at the door, but opened it despite of what just crossed her mind. Elizabeth was prepared for a naked Jack waiting for her, but the site before her almost made tears form in her eyes.

The first thing she noticed was the shirt on the floor. Not good. No sign of his trousers on the floor. Good. Blood drops on the floor. Not good. Jack laying on top of the tub. She couldn't decide what that was, but Elizabeth held her breath to the still form of Captain Jack Sparrow.

"Jack?"

Nothing. No response.


	16. Right Here Waiting

"Jack," Elizabeth breathed out sadly. Her voice was but a whisper that the raging storm outside drowned out. She didn't even notice the two officers glance shyly from her back trying to see.

She couldn't take another breath it felt like the corset was tightening around her more, crushing her lungs. Elizabeth drew out a shaky breath and shakily reached out to touch Jack's still form. When Elizabeth was close enough to Jack, she saw the blood at the bottom of the tub and gasped for air from the shock.

Jack blearily opened an eye and then the other when he saw Elizabeth. "Elizabeth! 'Tis always a pleasure for you to be the first person I see when I opened my eyes. I find it to be very good luck, indeed. Elizabeth, are you well? You look a little insipid. By all means, here let my flesh cover yours to warm it up!"

"JACK SPARROW!" Elizabeth yelled and almost punched him, but stopped her herself.

"Whatever is the matter, love?" Jack asked tiredly. He didn't even seem to notice that he was lying in a pool of his own blood from the waist up.

Elizabeth bowed her head down and tried to contain her fury by mentally hurting Jack.

"Ow," Jack said suddenly. He was rubbing his scarf-clad forehead though he didn't appear as if he hit his head.

Elizabeth gasped. Did she do that? "Jack, are you all right? You look tired."

"Are you saying that I should hop into bed with you?" Jack asked teasingly and suggestively.

"Jack," Elizabeth said warningly.

"Concerned for me, Elizabeth? I am deeply touched, though I wish I were to be touched elsewhere by you," Jack kept on teasing.

"Jack, no games," Elizabeth said.

"No foreplay?" Jack asked sadly. "Anything for you, Elizabeth. Mind handing me shirt?"

"What?" Elizabeth asked distractedly.

"My shirt," Jack deadpanned. "Unless you'd prefer me shirtless. Naked perhaps."

"No, no, no," Elizabeth said a little too quickly. She turned away from Jack and noticed the two guards not looking at them. It looked like they just turned their heads when she turned around to retrieve the fallen shirt. She was about to hand it to Jack when she saw him in the candlelight. "Perhaps we should clean you up first."

"Ah, Elizabeth! I thought you'd never be this forward with me. Of course you may wash with me!" Jack said excitedly. He stood up too fast and swayed. He almost slipped inside the tub if it weren't for Elizabeth to slow him down. Though that didn't mean they both fell. "Elizabeth! Are you all right?"

"If you would let go of me, I would be," Elizabeth said lying on top of the shirtless Jack. She noticed how unnaturally cool his skin was.

"You're right Elizabeth. Always right you are. Never doubted you for a second," Jack said as if Elizabeth told him the answer to escape. "We need a bed. A woman like you needs a fine bed, not just any old ordinary bed, but a bed fit your beauty. We'll need the largest bed ever so that we may roll, toss and turn everywhere! Nothing can slow us down! We'll also need layers and layers and layers of the finest silks, flower petals, rum or wine, and mountains and mountains of pillows. Pillows meant to be laid upon and for some comforting positions."

"Jack -" Elizabeth tried to interrupt him. She lost what he started to say the moment he said "bed".

"Now, now, Elizabeth. I know what you're thinking," Jack said. He was still holding her close to his chest.

"You are?" Elizabeth asked incredulously.

"Aye. Candles," was all Jack said.

"Candles?" Elizabeth asked as if he were an idiot.

"Aye. Candles," Jack said again. "But we can't have candles. Too dangerous. Believe me, love, you wouldn't want to have candles around the rum or wood. It is not very safe. Haven't you heard about that? Happened a few years ago in Singapore…"

"Jack," Elizabeth said interrupting his perverse thoughts.

"Aye?"

"Let go of me or I can hand you to Commodore Norrington right now," Elizabeth said warningly.

"Okay, okay," Jack said. He did as she asked and watched her get out of the rub. A few stray thoughts entered his mind as he watched her body.

"Come on, Jack. We need to clean you up for our guests," Elizabeth said. She went out to the door and told one of the passing maids to get her a bowl of water, some towels, and clothes.

"Our guests? As in yours and mines?" Jack asked. He slowly got up from the bloodied tub and knew that his clothes were sullied with his blood. If a stranger were to see him, they would think he would be some sort of deranged lunatic.

"Not quite. More like Will and mine's, but they are far more interested in you," Elizabeth said.

"Who wouldn't be interested in me?" Jack said. He leaned against the wall and knew that there would be a mark there when he would get up.

"Jack," Elizabeth said warningly again. She thanked the maid when she came back with the supplies. "Turn around Jack."

"So what is wrong with a little surprise summons from the locals? I wonder what they want to talk about," Jack took a sharp intake of breath as the cool water touched his skin.

"That's it! They only want to talk about you. By the way they're not local. Not from the Caribbean's anyways with their pale skin and something…" Elizabeth said. She not-to-gently wiped the blood off Jack's back. She tried not to look at the scars as she did so.

"Unearthly? Magical?" Jack tried to finish for her.

"Actually, yeah. There is just something off about them. They kept asking questions of how we came by you and your past. Will told them the oddest story of you being marooned on that island with something about turtles and using hair from your back," Elizabeth said. She wiped the excess water off from his back and started to roll the dressing cloth around his torso.

Jack gave a small laugh, "Good ole' Will."

"Take off your trousers," Elizabeth said, she heard a few snorts behind her. She regretted saying that.

"I would be delighted to, Elizabeth," Jack said. He started to, but stopped himself when he saw the clothing Elizabeth brought into view. "Never mind."

"What is wrong with these? They are Will's," Elizabeth said looking at the clothes. She didn't want to give Jack Will's clothes, but she didn't want him scaring their guests.

"No," Jack said finally. "I think I'll be wearing my own clothes. Thanks anyways Elizabeth," Jack said.

"Well at least change into his shirt," Elizabeth said.

"How do you suppose I do that?" Jack asked slyly.

"Just do it," Elizabeth said. She handed Jack the shirt and waited for him out in the hall.

"You know," Jack said stepping out into the hall and waving towards the two officers. "You've got a bit o' blood on you."

"Where?" Elizabeth asked looking around her dress.

"On your lovely bodice and rump," Jack said pointing.

Elizabeth slapped him across the face before she could stop herself.

"Ow," Jack said and reeled into the wall. "I am not entirely sure what that was for."

"You Jack Sparrow are a complete scoundrel," Elizabeth said angrily. Though she did that she had in fact had blood on herself, exactly where Jack said they were.

"Sticks and stones, love," Jack said and straightened himself when he heard someone clear their throat. Had they made it to the dining room already? "'ello there, dear William."

"Jack," Will said nodding to the older pirate.

"Ah, grub!" Jack said and walked towards the empty seat at the table. He didn't seem to notice or care about the other people at the table as he eyed the maid's bosom who setup his silverware. "I'm not sure we quite have met yet. I'm Captain Jack Sparrow."

"I – uh…"the maid try to say something, anything to keep the heat from rising to her face as Jack traced her lips with his finger.

"My, that is a lovely name I-uh. Spanish is it? Perhaps Mayan?" Jack asked as if she said something worthwhile to him. Names seem to fly past Jack when he doesn't meet them on more than one occasion. "Ever had pirate in you?"

"Uh…what?" she asked in a shrill voice.

"I said - "

"That will be all, Rosemary," Elizabeth said in a strict voice, dismissing the poor girl.

"Thank you, Miss Swann," Rosemary said bowing and left.

"Jack," Elizabeth said glaring at him.

"What? Mind passing the jam, mate?" Jack asked the Ron, who was across from him.

"Here," Ron said. He watched Jack's movements as if he were some fascinating creature.

"Thanks. What were you saying, Will?" Jack asked.

"I really wasn't saying anything," Will said.

"Of course not," Jack said winking.

"What would you like to drink?" a man asked.

Jack looked at him up and down as if he were measuring him up. "Rum."

"I'm afraid that the lady does not permit rum into her property," he said.

"Sink me! Andrew, my dear," Jack said.

"Sir, my name is Marcus," he said sounding annoyed.

"Jack," Elizabeth and Will said at the same time.

"Now that is my name," Jack said. "Now, _Andrew_, would you please fetch me some rum? A buccaneer surrounded by these fine noblemen, such as myself, might need to splice the mainbrace."

"The lady does not carry any rum in her house," Marcus said reminding Jack.

"No? Does the lady carry any whiskey?" Jack said making the last word strain out slowly, as if the servant didn't understand.

"No, sir, she does not."

"Grog? Wine? Scotch?"

"Only from her father's private storage."

"Well it will not be private any longer."

"Sir, you must understand – "

"Son, I'm afraid that you might be the one who does not understand my dire need to quench this thirst. Doctor's orders," Jack said.

"Then you will have to make do with what the lady has," Marcus said.

"Son, the lady -"

"Just give Jack the wine that everyone else is having," Will said interrupting them. He smiled sheepishly at their guests.

"Will do," Marcus said and left. He returned a minute later with the wine and served it to Jack.


	17. Schism

"Thanks, mate. Now what were ye saying?" Jack had quit occupying with the small jar of jam. He first took a small sip of the wine, then a longer one.

"Jack, please don't try anything to our servants," Will said.

"You can go ahead and do that with your crew, but not our servants," Elizabeth said.

"This whole this is going to addle me noodles," Jack muttered.

"Excuse me?" Ron asked.

"Begad! Will, Elizabeth! There are strangers in your home!" Jack exclaimed as if noticing them for the first time. He stood up and swayed on the spot. "Marcel! Quick! Call the two bucko's and tell them to stop bilge-sucking!"

"Sir, whatever are you talking about? For the last time, my name is Marcus," he said.

"Don't listen to him. He's just feverish right now from the wound," Elizabeth said trying to reassure their guests. "He is usually a lot more…"

"Mindful," Will finish for her.

"Blimey! Use yer deadlights, mate, it will do you good." Jack said. He tried to focus his eyes on his surroundings, but the strain he put his body through gave out. He fell to the floor like a sack of spuds.

"Jack!"

"Big fire…more wood…" Jack muttered and fainted.

Marcus helped him into his seat despite his dislike for the pirate. "Perhaps, I should take him to his room?" Marcus asked.

"Go get some rum," Will said. "He will be a lot better by then."

"Shall I fetch a doctor also?"

"No. As much as we would love to, we can't," Elizabeth said.

"All right," Marcus said.

"Terribly sorry about all this," Elizabeth apologized.

"It's all right, but is he always like this?" Hermione asked.

"Yes."

"No."

"He's Captain Jack Sparrow," Will said as if that would explain everything about the man.

"Ah, I see," Hermione said.

"He was a lot more…collective and in charge the other day," Endora commented and took a small sip of wine.

"He's gone then has he?" Jack asked. He was feigning unconsciousness.

"Who?"

"Marcus. You know the lad that was here but has gone now to fetch me some rum. By the way thanks Will," Jack said rubbing his injured side. He really did fall from all the strain and happened to land where he was shot.

"You mean you caused all that commotion just to get rum?" Ron asked.

"Let us call it a diversion. Aye, mate?" Jack said.

"We're not mates," Ron said. "So don't "mate" me as if we were."

"Ronald!" Hermione hissed across from him.

"Sorry," Jack said first. Will and Elizabeth looked at him in shock at first. "I never really intended to mate you."

"Why you…" Ron started to say.

"So what brings you to Port Royal, Mister Ron?" Jack asked in an official crisp tone. He seemed utterly serious there which made the whole table silent.

"We're here to find mama and papa's friend!" Philip said suddenly.

"Philip!" Hermione hissed to her son. They never meant for it to be so blunt.

"Ah. And who is this said friend?" Jack asked.

"You! You're Harry Potter!" Philip said excitedly. It was as if he couldn't contain his excitement and bluntness.

"Me? No, no, no my little friend. Son, my name is Captain Jack Sparrow. Savvy?" Jack said. Flashes of images of that boy came into his head like a whirlwind and he couldn't get them to stop.

"Are you all right, Jack?" Will asked.

"Aye," Jack said rubbing his forehead through the red bandana. "Just is yer house haunted?"

"Haunted? What do you mean Jack?" Will asked the pirate curiously.

"You know the likes," Jack said looking around. "Ghosts."

"Jack, I can't believe you still believe in those stories," Elizabeth said. Then, she remembered her encounter with the ghostly and damned crew of Barbossa almost three years ago. "Never mind what I just said. Though, Jack, our home is not haunted by any means."

"Not even by an incubus?" Jack asked. He had that look on his face where it seems like he knows something, but he'll have to torture you with his cryptic speech before telling you.

"What are you going on about?"

"An incubus is a male demon, or rather imp, that seduces women in their sleep," Hermione stated as everyone just stared at her. "Shouldn't you be more worried about succubus' or alcohol poisoning?"

"It's nothing to worry about. Just dreams," Jack said. 'Nightmares really,' he thought. "So this 'arry Potter of yours…Is he someone who you should be meddling with?"

"You should know about meddling," Elizabeth muttered.

"As a matter of fact he is. So why don't you just come back home with us, Harry?" Ron asked.

"Son, I am not this Harry Potter of yours as you claim that I am. I am sure that if you were to test me, I'd fail," Jack said brightly.

"But you're Harry Potter!" Philip cried out. He sounded like a boy who found out that his pet just died.

"Ron, maybe we should explain ourselves first," Hermione said.

"Explain ourselves? He should be the one explaining things!" Ron yelled. He had jumped from his seat and pointed at Jack.

"Sir, I'm pretty sure if you were to go down the curvy road, you would find yerself in front of a building. And do you know what building that would be?" Jack asked as if explaining how to swab the decks perfectly. "Because I'm not sure myself either, but in one of those buildings there is…the town clerk. He can read you of my said crimes and will hang me until dead. Though he wouldn't be the one to hang me it would of course be the hangman, thus the title. Though without the hard craftsmanship of some poor fellow, there would be no gallows on which I stand. But it would not really be the gallows if it were not for the rope because you see, the rope is most important. Without the rope, there would be nothing to hang me with, unless cloth. Though cloth is not a very good material to be hanged with, I should know. So without the –"

"Enough!" Ron said exasperated.

"Ehhh?" Jack made a noise.

"Perhaps breakfast is over today. Unless, Jack still has an appetite?" Will looked at the man questionably.

"Nah," Jack said. He didn't have much of an appetite even though he didn't eat that morning and having only one meal between now and days without food. He just wanted to crawl between the warm bed covers and sleep.

"Please join us in the next room," Will said. He let Elizabeth led the way as he lagged behind with Jack. "Are you okay?"

"Aye, aye. Nothing big," Jack said. He distinctively hid his bleeding side with his arm. He silently cursed at the light coloured shirt as the red peeked through.

"Who do you think this Harry Potter is and why are they calling you him?" Will mused. He shot a dark look at the family.

"Me? I have no idea? They clearly have the wrong man," Jack said thinking. "I've always been Jack Sparrow since I _could remember_…They've been having too many drinks."

"Sir, here is your rum," Marcus said upon his arrival. He had handed Jack the bottle knowing that Will had intended it to be for him.

"Thanks, mate," Jack said and took a swig. He felt the warming effects the drink had as it went down his throat.

"Your welcome, sir," Marcus said straining on the words. He left the room so that the maids could tend to the table.

"What's his problem?" Jack asked.

"What is their problem?" Will asked referring to the family.

"Aye," Jack said. He suppressed the shiver that tried to break out. "Tis a bit nippy in 'ere."

Will looked at Jack as if he said something wrong. "Just a little below normal because of the storm. Do you wish to go back to bed?"

"Yes, but I can't. Dying enough as it is," Jack said. He added reassuringly, "I'll have enough rest when I do die though. No need to fret, dear William."


	18. She Will Be Loved

A lone figure was standing out in front of the gates of the current and past home of the governor of Port Royal. The trees whipped around as the harsh winds of the Caribbean raged out during the storm. The lone figure looks torn before entering the gates and knocking on the heavy wooden door.

Elizabeth had finally managed to herd everyone into the sitting room to talk over tea and biscuits when she noticed that one of the servants walked towards her.

"Yes?" Elizabeth asked standing.

"There is someone here to see you madam," the servant said before leaving back out the room.

Elizabeth looked at him as he walked away without her dismissal.

"Something wrong, love?" Jack asked sitting on the loveseat.

"I'll be back. There's someone here…Why would they go outside in this weather just to talk to me?" Elizabeth pondered out loud.

"I would. Better yet, I would go across the world just to see you," Jack smirking through the pain.

"You're despicable, Jack," Elizabeth said darkly before she turned and left.

"What did I say the wrong thing? Because I would and I am a man of my word," Jack said pointedly was all Elizabeth heard him say before she was out of earshot.

"Good afternoon, Commodore," Elizabeth greeted the man before her.

"Please, Governor Swann, call me Harris," he says standing in front of her. Too close for Elizabeth's comfort, but not his.

"Then, call me Elizabeth," she says politely. She hid her displeasure of being so formal with a smile.

She only wanted to hear her name escape Will's lips and granted that Jack being a pirate without manners, she let him. Though Harris is new and she hardly knew the younger brother of John Norrington, she'll let him say her name all for the sake of the security of Port Royal. Has the older, deceased Norrington ever mention this Harris before?

"Only if it is necessary, Miss Swann. May I call you Miss Swann?" he asks her alarmed.

"You may," she says confused at why he chooses to address her so. "Commod- Harris," she corrected herself. "What do I owe the pleasure for you to come here personally? I hope your driver came back for you last night."

"Yes, thank you for worrying a petty officer…like myself. I'm honored," he says smiling at her. "I came here to check up on the pirate…and… I-uh came here to see how you are."

Elizabeth was shocked, but recovered. She gave him another small smile. She should have known that like his older brother, he would have fancied her. "Jack? He's coping with the thought of dying here. I just hope that when he does die, he won't haunt us," Elizabeth said laughing.

"If that worries you so, you should have fetched someone to tell me. I shall remove him from your property at once," he said taking her seriously. He took a step forward before feeling the hand on his chest stopping him.

"No, that won't be necessary," Elizabeth said eyeing him strangely. She didn't think that he had taken her this seriously. "It's alright. I believe that he'll find it somewhere deep inside his heart not to."

"Okay, but if he does troubles you so in any way or fashion, do not hesitate in telling me. I do not want anything troubling our fair lady governor," he said.

He seemed a lot closer than Elizabeth noticed at first and that she hasn't removed her hand from his chest. Their faces were almost touching and because since he was taller, he had to look down at her.

"You still haven't given me an answer."

"An answer to what?" Elizabeth asked breathlessly.

There was something about him that is making her feel this way for him. Never before has anyone managed to make her thoughts slow with just the intimacy and their deep pooling eyes, except for Jack Sparrow. But now Elizabeth has freed and distanced herself from Jack so she shouldn't have any feelings for the pirate, right?

"How are you?" He whispered in her ear as he leaned into her.

"I'm…" Elizabeth felt her eyes closing.

"Elizabeth!" a sharp cried out and made Elizabeth open her eyes.

"What!" Elizabeth exclaimed and took a step away from Harris.

Her cheeks flushed in a mixture of both embarrassment and anger. Though she felt very relieved for the interruption.

"Elizabeth! There you are," Jack said.

He seemed out of breath and he was clutching his side. It was only a short distance between the rooms, yet he looked like he was chased by the cannibals. Jack looked between the two and made some sort of motion with his free hand.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything," Jack said trying to sound casual before huffing for more oxygen.

"Actually –" Harris started to say before he was interrupted.

"No. What is it, Jack?" Elizabeth asked him.

She inched a little closer to Jack and for some strange reason, she felt a lot safer with Jack than she did with Norrington's sibling. Right now, being around Jack felt not only safer, but soothing, whereas with Harris it felt like standing under that unfortunate tree that was about to be struck with lightning, a deluded safe zone.

"Well, after you left, poor William was unable to fend for himself. Terribly sorry, but eunuchs are intolerable with guests and their questions about the talented man before you," Jack said. He saw her clueless face and pointed to himself several times. "Me."

"What about you? Are they still asking about that Harry Potter?" Elizabeth asked trying to get the gist of what he was trying to say.

"Harry Potter!" Harris Norrington said alarmed.

"Aye? You know the whelp?" Jack asked eyeing the commodore.

He stepped in between Elizabeth and Harris, keeping Elizabeth behind him. He noticed how uncomfortable Elizabeth was being around the man the previous night and now. He's been around women long enough to tell when they don't feel content and he would know. Jack now noticed how close he and the other male is and looked unpleasant before moving his face closer to the young commodore.

"Perhaps…" he said mysteriously. "And perhaps you shall remove yourself off me before finding yourself face to face with the executioner."

"Excuse me, Commodore Norrington," Elizabeth said.

She still felt strange saying this title to a man whom she hardly knows when the man who use to have this title has been on Port Royal with her for more than a decade, from the voyage of leaving England to settling to Port Royal and to their final moments with each other before the _demise_ of Davy Jones.

"Oh yes! Sorry, Miss Swann, but there is a lot of work to be done with many of the new recruits. I must leave now, but I'll try to stop by again later to see how things are faring here," Harris said. He forcibly pushed Jack out of the way just so he could kiss Elizabeth's knuckles.

Jack was about to retaliate with a few choice words of his own before Elizabeth intervened.

"Thank you, but that is not necessary," Elizabeth said and took her hand away from his. "Really, you don't have to. I believe that you need a good night's rest."

"I would if I knew that things are all right in your household."

"There is no need. I have an able staff of servants and some of the recruits here to help," Elizabeth said smiling. She was really getting tired forcing herself with these smiles, but she hoped that he would get the clue and leave them alone.

"If you are comfortable with that notion," he said.

"I am," Elizabeth said leading him out the door. "Have a nice day now."

"You too, Miss Swann," Harris said waving before Jack shut the heavy wooden door in his face.

"In all honestly, Elizabeth, just shoot the whelp before he does anything stupid," Jack said. He was leaning heavily on the door.


	19. Burn

Elizabeth had a hard time being the strict and evil host when it came to the Prewetts'. She tried vainly to have them leave until the wife, Hermione, exasperated started to drag her husband out the door.

"Why don't you tell us the truth Harry?" Ron asked infuriated with Jack.

"Mate, I mean Ron, you need to have yerself or yer wife check ye inta the insane house," Jack said a bit jarred by the strange man. "Might I suggest a few hours…days perhaps, in the sun. Might do you good, try not to stay out there too long you might go even be a bit wrong in the head…"

"Why you - !" Ron started to say before Hermione clamped her hand over his mouth, preventing him from saying anything too vulgar.

"It was really a lovely time," Hermione said.

She was having difficulty dragging her husband out. Poor Elizabeth and Will watched her while Jack was giving them a strange expression on his face. Jack finally rolled his eyes at the strangeness of the situation and decided to help.

"Don't touch me!" Ron yelled. He ripped himself of his wife's grip and Jack's before straightening out.

"Excuse his behavior…he clearly has been traumatized by the whole ordeal," Hermione said. She looked at Jack and looked at his features. "You really do look like him. Except our Harry would never be a pirate though he did have black hair instead of brown and his eyes…his eyes were…"

"Purple?" Jack asked trying to help her find the colour.

"No, um…I was going to say a mesmerizing –"

"Blue? Blue is a calming colour," Jack said looking into Hermione's eyes.

"Green. Harry has or had green eyes. I think I might see flecks of green in your eyes, Mr. Sparrow," Hermione said as if she were a cat who just found the unfortunate mouse. "I'm almost positive that you weren't born with hazel eyes."

"Clearly it might be the green of the carpet shining into me brilliant, sparkling eyes," Jack said.

"The carpet hardly has any green in it," Hermione said grinning.

"Does it now?" Jack said. "And would it help if I were to tell you that me hair originally was black? The sun of the Caribbean has been kind to me skin and hair. Can't find another dashing man like one before yer deadlights."

"Just tell us you're Harry Potter!" Ron yelled killing the tranquil, but stormy mood.

"Alright!" Jack yelled sounding confident.

"I knew it! He's going to cave in now," Ron said and started to snigger.

"I. Am. Captain. Jack. Sparrow," Jack said pronouncing each word as clear as he could to the other man. "And son, I'm the most feared pirate of the Spanish Main."

"Two words. Davy Jones," Ron said smirking knowingly.

Jack paled a bit before he remembered. "I've got two words fer you too, he's dead."

"What do you mean Davy Jones is dead?" Hermione asked perplexed.

"Nothing too dangerous. Just free a soul with his thump-thump and everything will be alright," Jack said with his mischievous grin.

"His thump-thump?" Ron asked and he threw his hands in the air.

"Father…" Endora warned her angry parent.

"Honestly! What in the Merlin's name is a "thump-thump?" Ron asked and laughed.

"His heart. Jack meant Davy Jones' heart," Will said.

"You're all off your rocker!" Ron announced.

"Lad, maybe it's you who is "off yer rocker". Might I suggest you drop by Tortuga and find yerself a lass if this one 'ere is not pleasing enough for you. Don't worry, love, I find you pretty, but I'm not the one married to this blaggard. Sorry, love," Jack said and bowed his head sorrowfully.

"Wh-"

"Oh!" Jack said suddenly. "Forgot about the little thing with Tortuga…let's just say that the East India Trading Co. pillaged and plundered a la on the account. Now we should stop bilge-sucking and take in that marvelous sun coming from zee heavens! Now off you go."

"Wait! Mr. Sparrow!" Hermione asked as her family was being forced out by Jack.

"Aye?"

"Does the name Vo-Voldemort ring a bell?" Hermione asked fearfully outside where it was still storming.

"Voldemort?" Jack repeated and thought. 'Didn't Anamaria say that name before?' Jack thought. "Nope. Now enjoy yer er…sunny sun."

"Jack!" Elizabeth and Will chorused together.

"What don't you like that I did?"

"You could have handled them better than throwing them out in the pouring rain."

"The tomato did not enjoy me company," Jack said. He sighed and slowly opened the doors.

"Why was he holding his side? Is he hiding something?" Jack heard the wife mutter before a "pop" sound sounded.

He looked out and saw not a trace of the family anywhere. "Now that is interesting…"


	20. Bohemian Rhapsody

"Are you okay, Elizabeth? You've been sick for a few weeks now," Will asked Elizabeth when she was through using the bucket they usually use for the cleaning tools.

"I'm fine. The doctor came while you were working at Mr. Brown's a few days ago," Elizabeth said. "Was there something you were going to ask me?"

"Yeah, uh…where's Jack?" Will asked Elizabeth.

"I thought I heard him say something about needing a nap. He really does need one," Elizabeth said. "Why? What's wrong?"

"I couldn't find him in his room and the servants did not see anyone leave through the door and windows. Where could he be?"

"Will," Elizabeth said looking at her fiancé. "This is a large house and there are many rooms. He's bound to be in one of them."

"You're right. Should I even bother looking for him?" Will thought out loud. "But what if he needs our help?"

"If he needs our help he can just handle it himself or scream, like he always does," Elizabeth said with a small smile.

"Miss Swann?"

"Yes? What is it?" Elizabeth asked and looked at her servant.

"There is a Mrs. Norrington here to see you. Shall I tell her that you're busy?"

"No, don't. Let her in. I'll be there shortly," Elizabeth said and sighed when the servant left. "There are just too many Norrington's these days."

"Yes, it seems rather odd that you're the only one that they wish to talk to."

"I was fine with James Norrington, but now his younger brother and mother are here. I hope they paid their respects to him," Elizabeth said.

"I don't like Harris," Will said looking out the window.

"Me neither. There is something strange about him."

"Strange like Jack?" Will asked smiling.

"Yes and no," she said thoughtfully. "Harris has a more menacing air about him and Jack has more of a relaxing air…sort of like the fair winds we get here on a hot day."

"What about me?" Will asked and held her close.

"What about you?" Elizabeth asked teasingly. "Well you're wonderful. I love you."

"I love you too," Will said and kissed the top of her head.

"Will…there is something I have to tell you," Elizabeth said seriously and looking at him lovingly.

"What is it?"

"You know how I've been sick in the morning lately?"

"Yes," Will said. He looked at her worried. "Will you be alright? I thought you did, but you're not dying are you?"

"Dying? Heavens no, Will! I'm –" Elizabeth said surprised and was about to tell Will the news before being interrupted.

"Miss Swann?" a voice near them called out. "I'm afraid that Mrs. Norrington can't wait any longer."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes at the woman and stuck out her tongue in front of Will. "I'll tell you later."

"Tell me now," Will pouted and kept a hold of her as she tried to leave.

"I'll leave you to do the thinking," Elizabeth said.

Will let go of her confounded and apprehensive of what it could be that Elizabeth is trying to say to him before the interruption. 'She said she wasn't dying, which is a good thing,' Will thought to himself. He looked at her every feature. 'Could it be an ailment? No, unless it wasn't fatal. Could it be that she has an infection? Definitely not scurvy. Then what could it be? She does not look in poor health at all! And now she wants me to guess? This is going to be a very distracting day.'

"You don't have to worry," Elizabeth said as she took in Will's troubled face. "Yet."

Will rolled his eyes and smiled at her gesture. He said, "Thanks, but you're sure you are alright?"

"I am. Now don't worry, go help Mr. Brown make more swords. I'll see you later tonight," she said kissing him on the cheek.

"Okay, but watch out for Jack. Something's not right ever since he came here and when that Prewett family came. Jack knows about that Harry Potter even though he tries to hide it," Will said his brow furrowed.

"I know…You'd have to be with him to understand him," Elizabeth said. She caught Will's darkened look and regretted what she said may have implied something else. "I didn't barter my happiness just so I could be with him when you were taken into Davy Jones' crew. I chose you, Will, not him."

"I'm sorry…I'm sorry, Elizabeth. It's just that I saw you kiss him, Jack of all people, right before the Black Pearl was destroyed by the Kraken," Will said sorrowfully.

"Yes, I did kiss him, but that was to distract him. I told you before," Elizabeth said holding his cheek against the palm of her hand. "Jack…he's a good man, but you, Will, you are a fantastic man. You saved me from Barbossa before he could murder me."

"With Jack's help in finding where everything was taken place," Will said. He didn't mention the part where he had knocked Jack unconscious before he could open his mouth to "negotiate" with his old crew.

"He is –"

"Miss Swann! Please, miss, Mrs. Norrington is getting peevish," the maid said urgently.

"I suppose I'll go now then," Will said. He kissed her again, "I'll be seeing you…"

Her hand dropped from his cheek, "And I'll be seeing you. Don't let Mr. Brown give you a hard time."

"Don't worry," Will said. He waved to her as he left the front parlor doors.

Elizabeth watched his back as he walked down the dirt path and passed the officers guarding the property. "Will…"

Elizabeth walked gracefully towards the awaiting Mrs. Norrington and greeted her.

"Miss Swann…I have heard that you were made the Governor of Port Royal through the will of your dear father, bless his soul, and of the people. Port Royal seems rather fond of you, Miss Swann. I know my dear James is rather fond of you…"

"I see…" Elizabeth said. "Why don't we chat in the next room?"

Elizabeth led her to the next room and waited for the older woman to sit down first.

"So how may I help you, Mrs. Norrington?"

"I've come see my son, James. I was told to talk to you," the older woman said

"Oh…" was all Elizabeth said.

Her eyes stung a little at the thought of the man whose mother didn't even know he was dead. She had a feeling how Mrs. Norrington is going to feel after receiving the terrible news, like when she was told her own father was murdered.

"What is it, dear?"

"I think we might need to sit down and converse about him."

"Come now, dear. You can tell me now. I am anxious to see my son after all these years," the old mother persisted.

"You really need to sit down," Elizabeth pleaded with her so that the woman won't faint from the news.

"But tell me what it is now!" Mrs. Norrington was getting frightened.

She knew something was wrong when she heard about how the East India Trading Co. lost a lot of men the previous year and a half. The last thing she heard about her James' whereabouts after leaving Port Royal was that her son was with the East India Trading Co. lead by the depraved Lord Cutler Beckett.

"Madam, you really should do what the lass says," a tired muffled voice behind them said.

The body of whose voice it was raised sitting on the couch. It was Jack though his hat was covering his face before he removed it. He was still awakening on the couch from where he was napping on. Elizabeth didn't even know he was there.

"And you are?" Mrs. Norrington asked abhor by him. She looked at him once and already thought lowly of him and was perturbed by him.

"Me? I am nothing but a poor innocent man who just happened to be here," Jack said. His usually tanned face looked unusually gray.

"Your name, boy," Mrs. Norrnington asked insensitively.

Something in that last word made Jack think of a very large man with a very red face in front of his face. The man looked furious and Jack could have sworn he saw spittle spray out of the man's face and onto his own. Absentmindedly, Jack wiped it off though there was nothing there.

"My friends call me Smithy, but I also go by Captain Jack Sparrow."

"You're a pirate!" the older woman exclaimed and ran behind Elizabeth.

"I am?" Jack asked. He pointed to himself and looked around. No one was listening to him.

"Miss Swann, please we have to get James and tell him of this intruder!" she said urgently and tugging at Elizabeth's arm. "He's holding you hostage isn't he?"

"Me? I would never hold Elizabeth hostage," Jack said. He looked at her and remembered of their first encounter after he saved her from the dreaded corset. "Again."

"Please, I just wanted to see my son," she pleaded.

"I'm sorry Mrs. Norrington, but…Commodore Norrington is dead…" Elizabeth said gently as she could.

"What? Please this is no time for games, Miss Swann!"

"I'm not…"Elizabeth said as gently as she could to the old mother in shock.

She helped Mrs. Norrington down the seat behind her and across from Jack. Elizabeth began to tell her of how James Norrington died and how brave her son was right to the end. Jack had "aided" her with a few details and then he decided to actually give the old woman a break without him degrading Commodore Norrington any further.

"He was very ambitious," Jack said last before Elizabeth continued on with the story. He was overcome with a sudden anger, anger for Elizabeth not spreading his own name to make him the most fearsome pirate there is.


	21. Bittersweet Symphony

Jack started to drift off from their conversation of dear old Norrington. He felt his mind start to wander off…back to when times were much brighter and sunnier before the first darkening cloud came and poured down into the earth with a malevolent force.

_He was a little older than Will was when he first laid eyes on the ship that would soon be his. His eyes sparkled to life as he ignored his fathers' rambling about the "proper" way of commandeering a navy vessel. _

"_So what do you think son?" his father asked him._

"_Um…Not to sound ungrateful or anything, but I don't like this one," he said to the one his father suggested. _

_Back then, he had a strong crisp English accent and paler skin with a head full of raven black hair. His past was a mystery even to him, but it was his father who claimed him as his own and told him not to worry as he draped his dusty leather cloak over Jack's stark naked body. _

_From the moment he was found to the day he was with his father deciding on which ship to commandeer, he was taught everything a pirate should and shouldn't know. Being a pirate was an education in itself! _

_Now, it looked more like they were shopping for the night's dinner and not about to steal a ship. Well for the young man he knew what he wanted, it was his father who didn't._

_Jack told the old salt about the dismantled ship, his father was a little harsh on him and he left. He watched as the man of who has taken care of him over the short span of three years, walk briskly away from him. It would be more than a decade before they'll cross paths again, but his own father did not recognize him from his startling change over the passing years gone by. If only he went after his father like his gut was telling him to do so, instead of finding temporary solace in the form of a young commanding officer._

"_You! Boy!" a voice said._

"_Me?" Jack asked._

"_Yes you, you twit. Get over here!" a young man said while twirling his cane._

"_Yes?" Jack asked the young man apprehensively. A second his father left him, he was already recognized as a pirate._

"_Lord Cutler Beckett of the East India Trading Co. and you are?"_

"_Sparrow… Jack Sparrow," he said. Neither of them lifted a hand to shake the others'._

"_Sparrow…That sounds familiar. Oh well, it seems that the captain of that merchant ship," Beckett pointed towards the one that Jack was admiring. Jack could feel his heart thudding deeply and loudly in his chest. It was a wonder no one heard it. "Was found this morning…dead in the bed of a whore. I will be stationed here for a month, but the Wicked Wench, that ship, needs to be captained to the next port near the African continent."_

"_What does this have to do with me?" Jack asked and swallowed slowly._

"_I have a proposition for you. I saw that you had declined that old sailor and you seem the right sort of man to do the job."_

"_And what sort of man is right for the job?" Jack asked. Somehow he knew the answer._

"_Not a pirate. Mister Sparrow, if there is one thing I hate, it is pirates," Beckett said. Jack thought he was done, but the other man continued. "Pirates are evil traitorous men who don't do as they are told and who chose to work for themselves and rather not their commanding officer. Such travesty and treason! All pirates I find, I brand them before their engagement with the gallows."_

"_Excuse me, but you brand them?" Jack asked. He scratched his head. 'This guy is a lunatic,' he thought._

"_Yes," Beckett said. He pointed the end of his cane in front of his face and Jack saw the 'P' at the bottom of the iron._

'_Aye, this man clearly had way too much…'Jack thought. He said out loud, "I see…"_

"_Great! Now you see, I brand them right here," Beckett said. _

_He grabbed Jack's hand and pressed the unheated iron end on Jack's forearm. His already pale skin has whitened a bit more in the form of 'P'. _

"_Thank you for the…erm demonstration," Jack said and took his arm back._

"_As I was saying, Mister Sparrow, I need a captain for the Wicked Wench and you seem the able kind of man to do so. She already has a crew, the cargo is already loaded up, she's ready to set sail, but all she needs is a captain."_

"_A captain? Me?" Jack wondered._

"_Yes. Now, now I already have the paperwork's done for the next captain; it just needs the man's name and his signature. I've found the previous captain to be irksome and he was always in the whorehouse, drinking. So what do you say?"_

"_I…" Inside, Jack was jumping joyously, but the shock of becoming a captain within five minutes time of being departed with his father was such a feat, he could not speak!_

"_Come now, boy! I haven't all day now. This is, after all, such an honor to be promoted from a lowly creature to a captain of a navy merchant vessel belonging to the East India Trading Co.!"_

"_Aye!...I mean yes! Yes!" Jack said with his back straight and stood tall in front of the much shorter man. _

"_Good. No need to shout now. Just sign your name here, here…and here," Beckett said after he handed Jack an inked quill which he scribbled down his name. "Good. Welcome to the East India Trading Co. Captain Sparrow."_

'_Captain…That has a nice ring to it,' Jack thought and mused with the thought. "Don't I have to read that?"_

"_No," Beckett said quickly. "You can read? Even better! The last captain couldn't tell the letter 'z' from 't'. I am most impressed already, Captain," Beckett said. He clapped Jack's back and led him to the Wicked Wench. "Welcome to your new home, Mr. Sparrow. I know you'll find her to be a marvelous vessel."_

_Jack ran his hands through the surface of the smooth wood. The sails shown no nicks, singes from cannon fire, or even patches on them. The deck was smooth and as clean as a ship with many men trampling on her floors daily could be. She looked almost new!_

"_She's beautiful…" Jack whispered in awe. _

_Beckett hastily, with a hint of boredom in his droning tone, introduced Jack to his new crew and to the crew their new captain. He told Jack that the crew already knew of the coordinates and where the cargo is to make berth, all Jack had to do was make sure no one steals the cargo and that the crew stays together._

_His first mission was a success! The merchants were happy with their supply of fine silks and rugs, Jack grew more confident in his skills as a captain. The men were happy, he was happy, what ever could go wrong?_

_Months turned into a year as Jack was captain of the Wicked Wench. He came back to Beckett repeatedly to report his findings and of what happened. Jack regarded Beckett in a brotherly sort of fashion, while unknown to Jack, Beckett quickly grew tired of the man's constant talkative state about other ports and its people, but he only nodded his head and pretended to pay attention as the other flamboyantly moved his hands about with detail._

_Beckett orders Jack to go to the African continent to bring back "precious" cargo and to deliver it back to this port. Jack, being the simpleton back then, obliges to his "friend" Beckett. _

"_Good," Beckett said and waved him off. _

_Weeks passed and they reached the African continent. Jack was amazed at the strange birds and darker skinned people._

"_Yeah, put the cargo in the bay or whatnot…Now do they understand us?" Jack asked. He was face to face with one of the locals and inspected him._

"_Some do, some don't. Doesn't matter seein' as they're just slaves. Do what they're told is best with them, lest they meet the rope's end for their disobedience," the slave master, who Jack did not even know there was on, said cracking his whip with a flick of his chubby wrist._

"_That's not very nice," Jack said and glared at the slave master. _

"_Just doin' mah job, cap'n, just as your doin' yours," he said and spat something foul on the ground near Jack's foot. _

_Jack looked at the man repulsed by how he treated another person, turned around and watched the crew haul up large crates. They looked heavy…_

"_That be the last one, Cap'n," one of the crew said. He whipped his brow with his already sweat drenched sleeve._

"_Finally! Let's leave now," Jack said._

_They sailed away from the dreaded slave master and back home in the West Indies._

"_What do you suppose is in them crates?" Jack asked one night._

_Three days passed from when they departed from the port where they got the heavy load. Sometimes he catches a few of the crew members going down to the cargo bay with a large platter with little food on them. Jack didn't question them, thinking that the cargo was a bunch of exotic animals. He wondered why their cries sounded more humane than animalistic. _

"_You don't know?" the same crewman from earlier asked surprised. "They're usually just walked into the ship, but the Lord Beckett, doing nothing but letting us do the work this by the way is what he should be doing not sitting in his office. Well, he thought it best to have them caged in. He didn't want us to feed them either, but we did."_

"_What do you mean?" Jack asked perplexed. _

"_About what?" he handed Jack the rum bottle and the captain shook his head._

"_About what you meant…Beckett is suppose to be here doing my job?" Jack asked. He loved being captain of a fine ship. He felt an uncertain knot of dread form within himself. "And what do you mean about them being fed? You mean the animals?"_

"_For Beckett, yeah in a way. He is supposed to be the one making sure everything is in check and whatnot. Instead, he is back there drinking fine wines sitting on his arse doing not a spit of work. He's been obsessing what other lands there are. You should see his wall, on day I caught him looking at some little map with little blotches and the rest was bare. I think it might be some sort of map…"_

"_Then –"_

"_Why isn't he the one on the ship finding the lands? Because he's the kind of man that will do the work only when he knows there is work that he is interested in. You're just his lackey, no offense," he said holding his hands up in defeat. "As for the "animals" they're only animals if that's what you think of them."_

"_What?" Jack was getting confused with every word this man was saying._

"_Just go down and look for yourself. As for myself, I'll be going to bed," he said and left a confounded Jack by the stern._

_Jack thought about the conversation that just transpired here and concluded that he should go down there and see for himself. _

"_It's not that terrible, is it?" Jack muttered to himself._

_He lit a lantern and descended down the steps with heavy footsteps. He could see the large wooden boxes with flies buzzing around them, there were very few holes the size of bottom of a bottle, the bottom of the boxes looked slightly darker than that of the rest of the box, and the smell would put even a hog to shame._

"_What?" Jack asked himself. _

_The young captain put the lamp close to one of the holes and peered inside. What he found was not what was he expecting and he gave a small surprise yelp and jumped back._

_There were many tired, defeated yellowed eyes looking back at him. Not just any eyes, people eyes! These were human beings being crated off to the islands!_

"_Blimey!" Jack muttered and cursed. "Are you okay? Do you understand me? I'm the captain of this ship. I'm here to help you. Please, wait as patiently as you can. I've got to get you out…"_

_He looked around and saw a few tools that looked like they were up for the job. He quickly struck the wooden boxes over and over again. An hour passed and he had already discarded his coat, hat, and rolled up his sleeves. He was drenched in his own sweat and his muscles strained with the effort of trying to free people he doesn't even know. _

_The African people inside watched in wonder at the only man who tried to set them free. They cried out for joy as Jack cracked through the wooden barrier and swung with vigorous strength as he enlarged the crack into a hole. The slaves slipped out and helped those who needed help._

_Jack smiled as they rejoiced, but he soon battered the other wooden boxes with what little strength he had left. The slaves that were still healthy, grabbed some more tools and helped Jack free their tribe. He soon was huffing and puffing for breath while his swings grew slower and shakier. His back ached and his arms felt like lead, but that didn't matter, all that did matter was to free the people. _

_He felt gentle, but strong hands try to pull him away and he stopped for a moment and saw their faces. They knew that it wasn't his fault and all he wanted to do was help them, but they didn't want their only ally to die helping them. Jack looked into their eyes and saw hope. Hope. Had he caused this?_

_Jack thought of his false friendship with Beckett and his anger grew. The moment the hands let go of him, he turned back to the wooden boxes and imagined it was Beckett that he was plummeting the tool into. He screamed something, but he couldn't recall what it was. He was furious with himself, at the crew for not telling him, and at Beckett for fooling him. He heard something and felt a rush of wind and something sharp strike his face. It seemed something exploded! _

_When Jack did look up, he saw that all the other boxes seemed to have exploded and the people were free! They cried out and rejoice. Family and friends reunited with each other and danced. Jack sat back and watched them. A woman came up to him._

"_You…Jack Sparrow…" she said with a thick accent and it wasn't British, but she spoke perfect English!_

"_You know me?" Jack asked and regarded the woman before him. Her hair was up in a strange way, her skin was somewhat lighter than her fellow people, she wore various necklaces, and she wore something that once looked like a very fine dress. _

_She smiled, "I know you, Captain Jack Sparrow of the Wicked Wench. I hope we can get to know each other. You, who don't recall a past, but have a future. You're not of here, but you belong here much more than that large island with people who uncared for you," she said. "I can quell the demon within. Come visit me before it is too late."_

"_You mean England? I suppose…" Jack said and regarded her. She was much different than the other slaves. "What is a fine woman such as yourself doing here?"_

"_I was looking for an unusual kind of creature before the hunters belonging to the isles captured me with this tribe."_

"_And where are your usual whereabouts?"_

"_In my shack," she laughed. "Perhaps you might find something of interest there."_

"_I think I already found my interest," Jack said. He leaned in to kiss her, but she stopped him with a pat on his cheek. He no longer felt the pinpricks of where the splinters struck him._

"_You've already begun your journey, it won't end with a sunken ship," she whispered in his ear. "I'm Tia Dalma."_

"_Tia Dalma?" Jack repeated. When he looked up, she was no where to be found._

"_Captain!" a sharp cry came from the top of the stairs. _

"_Aye?" Jack asked. He watched as his crew rush down the stairs and stopped at the bottom step when they caught site of more slaves surrounding them._

"_What happened? The slaves…they are free! Hurry men! Fetch the nets! Grab your weapons, but do NOT kill!" The men stumbled back and rushed to get the nets._

"_NO!" Jack ordered. "We are to turn back and return them back home where they belong."_

"_But Captain…"_

"_I said turn the ship around NOW!" Jack said furiously. He grabbed the navy officers' shirt roughly. "I am captain! Not you! Are you challenging me sailor?"_

"_Of course not, sir," the first mate said and he visibly shrunk back._

_Jack watched the crew and took great care in making sure that the slaves were not being mistreated during the three days back to the African port. Once they landed, Jack set the slaves free and had the slave master and his minions tied up. There was an ample amount of gold in the slave master's shack which Jack pocketed after giving the slaves half of the gold. _

_They returned back to the West Indies with no cargo of slaves and a grim crew. Jack let the crew restock their stocks. As for Jack, he wanted to have a little chat with his dear pal, Cutler Beckett._

"_Welcome back Mister Sparrow," Beckett's cold voice greeted him when he entered. _

_Jack, for once in the presence of Beckett, stayed silent._

"_I see…" Beckett turned around and faced Jack. They regarded each other with contempt for the other's betrayal. "Such treason…failure to complete an assignment as simple as that. My, my you really are stupid." _

"_Oh tush," Jack said angrily. "They are people too! They do not need to be enslaved. Let them have their freedom and peace!" _

_Beckett backhanded Jack who took a step back from the surprising blow. The side of his face stung and he felt that his lip had busted from the impact of Beckett's ring, he licked it. When he turned to leave, two officers guarded his only exit._

"_You see, Mister Sparrow, a simple slap is not going to reprieve you and your crew. As we speak, if you look out the window," Beckett said motioning towards the open window. The man placed the tip of his cane inside the burning fireplace. "Yes now you will see that I have ordered that your ship, the Wicked Wench, is to be torched and gunned down upon your arrival. Marvelous…The poor fates of your crew. And that's not all…"_

_Beckett nodded towards the two officers behind Jack. They immediately held him down on the table and they outstretched Jack's right wrist. Jack struggled against their tight hold and managed to knock down one before two more officers piled on top of him. Beckett inspected the red hot iron and silver tip fondly and gripped Jack's right wrist. He didn't even bother rubbing oil on it to help the skin not stick to the metal. _

"_No!" Jack screamed and continued to struggle despite the heavy weight on top of him. _

_Jack felt the heat of the branding iron before it touched his skin, melting away the flesh with a scorching hiss and pulled some flesh, and perhaps a piece of muscle, off from this arm. He screamed until his voice grew hoarse from the burnt flesh on his wrist. He didn't even notice they let go of him and regarded him with distaste as Jack cradled his arm close to his chest. _

"_Take the pirate away," Beckett said turning away from them and pouring himself a glass of wine._

_Jack let them lift him up, but once he was straightened out he elbowed the two painfully, despite the pain of his new brand, and tackled Beckett to the ground painfully. He punched Cutler a few times and felt the cartilage of the other man's nose break before hands grabbed him from behind._

_Jack laughed manically as they dragged him out, "This isn't over yet!"_

_They set him to prison without a trial. 'Lock the door and throw away the keys…' Jack fumed in his cage while his branded wrist scabbed over a 'P'. He had no title, no gold, no clothes other than the ones on his back, no crew, no effects, and no ship. They had cut his hair short with a blunt knife the moment he entered and he felt the beginnings of a cold._

"_Bugger," Jack said. He tried to open the door of his cell for the hundredth time before giving up. _

_He sat in his cell night and day with his shorn hair for the past thirteen days. There was no hope. He felt like the slaves back on the Wicked Wench, no one coming to save them…but he had, he had saved them! Will someone save him? _

_At that precise moment, he heard loud cannon fire outside. After what felt like forever, the canons sounded like they were within range of the prison that Jack was in. A blast and some smoke later, a hole large enough for a man to fit through appeared on his wall. He looked sadly at his fellow prison mates in their grouped cells since he was alone._

"_Godspeed, mates," Jack said. He took off an imaginary hat and bowed to them before leaving them to their own demise. _

_He ran and ran as fast and far as he could from the prison. He dodged the fallen bodies of several men and found himself a small rowboat. Since he had no other man besides himself, he was forced to row it himself. He quickly reached another island over the night of rowing and found out through some people in the pubs that he was not far from Beckett. He also managed to snag a few articles of clothing to disguise himself._

_The next day, after hitching a ride, rather more like stowing away, he arrived at the port.  
It was the same port where he made berth for the East India Trading Co. during the past year as one of their captains. He snuck out and as he made his way towards where Beckett's office was he passed an apothecary which was widely known for its strong sleeping herbs. _

"_Might you perhaps have a small sample free of charge?" Jack asked pointing towards one of the stronger sleeping herbs with a small walking stick._

"_No," the man said._

"_No?" Jack repeated after him. "I'm sorry, you must have been mumbling because I couldn't hear a word you said. Maybe you should one of those herbs to make your mouth less slack so all may understand you."_

"_Sir, leave the shop now before I alert someone," he said. He walked around the counter and nudged Jack towards the exit._

_With the man's back towards Jack, he hastily grabbed a handful of the herbs and stuffed them in his "borrowed" jacket. _

"_Thank ye," Jack said and walked out._

_Jack walked around the office of where Beckett's office was and waited for the man to get ready for dinner. Once or twice, he stopped in front of where he last saw the Wicked Wench and he could feel her calling to him._

_That night, Jack snuck into Beckett's kitchen and while the cook wasn't looking, he passed by the broth soup and dropped several broken pieces of the herb inside. It blended well with the garnish on top. _

_Beckett ate his dinner in silence and alone as usual. His face had long healed of the beating that the despicable Jack Sparrow. He sat hunched over his table with his dinner on one side and his small map of the world on the other. It seemed that if he stared intently over the piece of mostly blank paper, then he would find the unidentified lands, but they didn't._

_Cutler Beckett felt his eyes slowly start to close and his head fell onto the wooden table with a heavy thud. When Jack found him an hour later, he found the dear lord sleeping with an almost blank paper pressed against his face. He lifted the paper and held it above the candle's flame. Slowly, he lowered the paper and watched it burn. Now to deal with the man. _

_Jack lifted the man and carried him off from his shoulder. Outside, there were very few people left awake on the streets and it was very good timing. He slowly made his way towards the docks and lowered the man on the floor. He found some rope, paper, and paint. _

_The next morning, sailors were surprised to find a naked Lord Cutler Beckett tied and gagged on a post in a bent over position which uncouthly scarred their minds. All around his body in paint were "CJS" symbols and a very large one on his right wrist and forehead. There was a powdery substance, most likely baking flour, in the shape of a set of handprints right on either cheeks of Beckett. Mind you, it wasn't the top cheeks. On his back was a piece of paper that said "To my dear friend with all the love I have for you. From Captain J.S.". _

_Beckett woke up cold and uncomfortable. Why were people laughing so early in the morning? _

"_Uhnt?" Beckett said through the gag._

_He turned as far as he could and saw his bare skin and men behind him laughing. He screamed in frustration and struggled against the bonds. The harbor master came up and saw what the sailors were laughing about._

"_Outrageous! Sir, I am most appalled by this devious act of heresy. When we find this woman, she shall seek punishment as you deem fit. Here now sir, use my coat. It is a bit chilly this morning," the harbor master said and handed Beckett his jacket. _

"_You will be most rewarded," Beckett said as he buttoned the jacket on him and try to hide his modesty. "As for the rest of you, no wages for a month. Be lucky I am not sending you to the sharks!" _

_Beckett wracked his brain of the previous nights events, but found nothing unusual. He felt something on his back and he removed it, it was note! He quickly read the letter and first his face paled before turning a beet red. _

"_It was no woman, but a man. No a pirate," Beckett said seething and crumpled up the letter. He tossed it into the ocean below. _

_Jack laughed at this morning's event. They each left their mark on each other: Beckett giving Jack the pirate brand which was a physical mark and Jack humiliating and making Beckett the laughing stock which was more emotional. _

_When he raided through Beckett's office hours before there was nothing he could wear since the man was much smaller than he was, but there was enough gold pieces. He liked his new boots, jacket, shirt, and tricorn. He couldn't find a cheap enough pistol, but this cutlass will do nicely for now. _

_After the sailors and an embarrassed Beckett had dispersed from the port, he dove in the murky waters. That would be the last time that Jack Sparrow would not be a marked man. Jack swam down to the depths of the sea with a deep breath, but that wouldn't last long. He had vowed to himself that he would go get the Wicked Wench himself from Davy Jones' locker, even if it killed him. He might even have to drag it out from his hands in a sort of like keelhauling. _

_Less than a minute, he was losing oxygen and darkness crept up on him. Just as he was about to pass out, a ghostly shape grew in front of his eyes and moved towards him._

"_What do we have here?" an octopus faced man asked. He swam, more like walked towards the drowning Jack._

"_Can't understand a word yer saying, boy! Yer just gurgling out nonsense. Come aboard me ship and I'll strike a deal with ye," the fish-man said. He grabbed Jack roughly by the arm and led him towards the ghostly ship. "Better eh?" _

"_Yes," Jack said and collapsed on the deck. He coughed out water._

"_You know who I am?" _

"_The man whose parents were an octopus and barnacle?" Jack asked and laughed despite the pain in his chest. It felt good to breathe again._

"_No," he said. "Seeing as yer mostly dead by now, it shouldn't matter how stupid of a whelp you are. I'm Davy Jones and you are aboard my ship, boy."_

"_Okay. So what do you want, fishface?" Jack asked squinting his eyes at the man. How was it that he was able to breathe and talk? He has heard tales for years now about the infamous Davy Jones, but they just seemed unreal, until now. _

"_It be more of what ye want than what I want. How would you like to live for eternity sailing under me orders? You can delay death." Davy Jones asked him._

"_Not much. I want my ship back. I take no more orders from anyone," Jack said._

"_Feisty fella you are," Davy Jones said. "How about I get you a ship and you be the captain of her for three years?" _

"_No. MY ship and no one else's. Best make it thirteen years," Jack said. He glanced around the ship and saw that most of the crew was almost as deformed at their captain._

"_Aye, but after yer thirteen years as being called captain, you must accept to the terms of serving aboard my ship, the Flying Dutchman, for one hundred years. Do ye agree to these terms?" Davy Jones struck a claw out and waited for Jack's answer._

"_Sure," Jack said quickly not caring about his soul. He sprung onto his feet and gingerly shook the claw of Davy Jones. For a moment there was a black mark on the hand that shook Davy Jones' and it slowly disappeared. _

"_I shall raise yer ship now…Captain,"Davy Jones said. _

_He raised his barnacled arms and the water around them shook. Slowly a shape formed from the depths of the oceans. As the Wicked Wench floated back towards the top, the Flying Dutchman was steps ahead. Jack watched and marveled how his ship came onto the surface in one piece as water poured out from the port holes. _

"_The Black Pearl…" Jack whispered in glee as he re-named his ship, which is of course considered an ill omen to do so. _

"_There," Davy Jones said. "As part of my generosity, ye be in the middle of the Caribbean than that shabby port."_

"_I, Captain Jack Sparrow, are in yer debt, mate," Jack said. He grinned and clapped Davy Jones' back happily. _

"_Thirteen years, Captain Jack Sparrow," Davy Jones reminded the young man._

'Back then,' Jack thought to himself, 'back then, I was but a stupid lad with stranger ideals and speech…I was different. Why am I thinking this? I need more rum.'


	22. Life Will Go On

"Jack!" a sharp whisper called his name.

At first Jack thought he was near the siren, but then his surroundings came back to him. 'Right…Elizabeth. Will. Couch," Jack thought. He shook his head and massaged his dirty face with his dirty hands to shake off the fatigue and memories.

"Aye?"

"I asked if you wanted more tea," Elizabeth asked and looked at him like the first time she saw Davy Jones.

"Tea? I don't drink tea," Jack said. He added, "Unless I am not myself."

"They I suppose you aren't," Elizabeth said and nodded towards something below his chest.

Jack watched her head nod towards him until he realized that she was motioning towards him and not something that he had in mind.

"Oh!" Jack said. He looked down and saw an empty tea cup complete with saucer that had a small light brown ring at the bottom. "Whoa!"

Jack threw the cup and saucer in the air, but he caught them and placed them on the table before him. He cracked his jaw and could actually taste the tea!

"Elizabeth, explain," Jack said hastily and cracked his jaw again.

"Explain what?" she asked confused.

"Wha…Wha…What was I doing with that?"

"You were drinking it, Jack…Are you feeling okay? Perhaps you should rest again," Elizabeth said.

"No. What was I doing?" Jack asked her. He suppressed the urge to run towards her and shake the information out of her.

"You said you were thirsty and drunk tea. Then you just sat there and listened. Maybe you need some fresh air…On second thought that might not do you any good with Commodore Harris Norrington out there."

"Did you say Harris Norrington?" Mrs. Norrington asked. She seemed almost as confused as Jack when he found out he was drinking tea.

"My dear lady, it is your whelp who has confined me here," Jack said sincerely. "Rum! Someone get me rum before I might do something that Elizabeth here will disapprove of!"

"Jack, I already do…"

"James? He would never do that! My, there are prisons and dungeons awaiting you," the older woman said.

"Norrington?" Jack asked. He liked to refer the first Norrington as Norrington and the second Norrington the whelp. Marcus, the servant, almost, but gently handed Jack the rum bottle. "Thanks, mate. Nah…T'was your other whelp, Harriet. Oh this is good."

"Harris," Elizabeth corrected. She turned her head away as rum dripped down Jack's mouth.

"Harris?" Mrs. Norrington repeated. "What is this madness you speak of?"

"Mrs. Norrington, you other son, Harris. Do you not remember him?" Elizabeth asked her concerned.

"My dear, I've only bore two sons in my lifetime. My first died in childbirth and the second is James."

"Now that is something…" Jack said mysteriously.

"What?" Elizabeth asks.

"I knew there was something about him…He looked nothing like your dashing son, not that I find him dashing. Women in Port Royal have very poor taste. Look at Will and Elizabeth! Should be me you should be rooting for."

"Young man, you should grateful that the governor has not kicked you out on the streets. She has a very kind heart, unlike your black one," Mrs. Norrington said with contempt.

"Oh, believe me, I am grateful, madam," Jack said sounding serious. He took another swig of rum and swished it around his mouth still trying to get rid of the tea taste in his mouth. When he opened his mouth, some of the rum spilled out and stained his trousers. "Sorry, love. As for Harris, he, I am not grateful for. They believe that they've caught Captain Jack Sparrow, but Elizabeth let me tell you that they have not. Not yet."

"What?"

"I'll take care of the ole' chum," Jack said.

"So you, pirate, are telling us that the commodore here I is claiming to be another one of my son's and that James is dead?" Mrs. Norrington dabbed her eyes with a small handkerchief.

"Yup," Jack said without hesitation and remorse. "When I'm gone, he'll be gone."

"Is there something you're not telling us, Jack?" Elizabeth asked him. She knew that look in his eye and the way his manners changed when he knew something and they didn't. She also knew that he's not going to tell them until they found out.

"Me? Have I given you any reason not to trust my judgment?" Jack asked her.

"Plenty of times," Elizabeth said smirking.

"Then that's one too many," Jack said.

"Excuse me, but I should be going now…I need to collect James' belongings," Mrs. Norrington said trying not to cry. At the end, she just broke down and cried.

Usually, Jack would jump at a chance like this, but Mrs. Norrington was not his type…at all. Elizabeth, had it been her who was the one crying, but sadly she was not. He grunted as there was a sharp pain as something seemed to press all their weight in that particular spot. He looked at her oddly, but she did not look at him. Instead, she just latched herself onto his shoulder and bawled her eyes out and he just remained quiet. Uncertain, he patted her back twice and let her hold onto him.

A while later, Mrs. Norrington left the house with teary eyes and thanked Elizabeth and Jack, much to their surprise.

"You're a good man, Jack," Elizabeth said and smiled at him.

"Don't start that again," Jack said a little darkly. He was leaning heavily on the doorframe, but managed to make it look like he was in a relaxed pose. His right arm supporting him, left arm just laying casually on his hip, and his ankles were slightly crossing each other.

"Jack…I didn't mean it like that. You really are a good man, letting a grieving woman mourn for her son all over your shirt," Elizabeth said kindly to him, but her eyes held mirth in them.

"Aye, but she really needs to find 'erself a man," Jack said.

"She's a widow…" Elizabeth said deadpanned.

"She should get another one then," Jack said thoughtfully.

"Another one?" Elizabeth asked having no idea where Jack comes up with these ideas.

"A better one."

"A better one?"

"That one," Jack said nodding his head towards someone.

"What one?"

"That one."

"No," Elizabeth said.

"What? He's perfect for her! Both are old in their ways and might enjoy each other's company."

"He's a servant. Mine and Will's servant. Leave Marcus alone!"

"It would be far worse for them not to have each other," Jack said. He pushed himself off from the doorpost and swayed a little before facing Elizabeth.

"You need to eat. I haven't seen you eat the whole time you've been here," Elizabeth said noting how thin he seemed to have been since she last saw him a year and a half ago.

"Immortals don't need to eat."

"They don't bleed either."

"Don't they?"

"I don't recall hearing any immortals dying by a gunshot wound to the stomach."

"But I do recall most men dying within minutes and days of one. Not more than a week, aye?" Jack asked. He left the room with his heavy footsteps leaving with him.

'He's right,' Elizabeth thought. 'But he truly is not immortal…right?'


	23. Lovefool

_Her name was Datura Stramonium Lactucarium that much he knows. He thought that they met upon fate or destiny, but now he knows that it was not so. _

_He was walking back to his home after his stroll when she happened to stumble upon him about two months after the Weasley's kicked him out of their shabby house saying something along the lines that he was a threat, though not in those words. He was fumbling through his pockets looking for something._

_"Hey you!" a voice called out to him weakly._

_He didn't sense any danger coming from her so he turned to her. And all he did was look at her neutrally; he was starting to get tired of being Harry Potter. She was younger than him, thinner, her hair a platinum blonde, ice blue eyes, there were some small cuts and bruises on her, and her cheeks were flushed. Somehow, she reminded him of his old Death Eater enemy back at Hogwarts. She wore her hair in two high pigtails, a horizontal striped black and red tank top, blue jeans, and wore black boots. _

_She took this as a sign that he acknowledged her. "I was wondering if you knew where a hospital is at. If you don't that's fine…or not"_

_He kept his face neutral as he watched her. After another moment of watching her, he knew why she wanted a hospital. Then with his hand still in his pocket, he found a small box._

_"Please sir," she said kindly. She swayed in her spot._

_All he did was point behind him and turned back to where he was headed. He removed the small carton and shook it. A small rattling sound came from it and he beamed at it. He took out the last cigarette and lit it with ecstasy before his face went stoic again. _

_"Thank you," she said gratefully and walked towards that direction. She thought he was leading her towards the hospital as she followed him._

_He felt someone following him and was prepared to attack, but something in his mind (or was it heart?) that stopped him. He was about to pull out his wand the moment someone grabbed him around the middle._

"_Bloody hell! You know what? I'll just take you there myself. I already pointed the direction there since it is about some odd blocks there, but you'll live. Honestly…hey are you okay?" Harry asked at first irritated, but then realized that she might be in a lot more serious condition than he thought. _

_She started to slide down and Harry quickly lifted her off her feet and carried her. She nuzzled closer to his chest as her fever rose. When she closed her eyes all she can hear were his steady footsteps and his unfaltering heartbeat. _

"_Might as well take her home," Harry said to himself still carrying the girl._

"_Why would an imbecile like you do that? Imagine what people would say if they caught you sneaking an unknown child into your home. Oh the scandal!" a second voice, much more softly said with a touch of overdramatic shock._

"_You already know what I'm going to do, plus I have no intention of doing that…to her," Harry said rolling his eyes. _

_He kept walking until he reached a lonely house (rather fairly large cottage guarded by a wrought-iron fence) and walked through the opened gate. Harry set the young girl on one of the guest bed rooms, since those were the only rooms in the house that wasn't covered with wizarding stuff and boxes. For the next hours as he watched her, he semi-expertly gave her the correct potions to lower her fever and cleaned and bandaged up the cuts. _

_She woke up to a red and orange room. She looked around and saw that the window was open, letting the bright orb in the sky set into night. She felt much better knowing that she was in **his **home and that he took care of her. She stretched and could not find her savior in the room. _

_The young girl tiptoed out of bed and into the hallway. She walked with a slight tilt leaning this way and that because of how she was suppose to have more bed rest rather than walking around looking for the owner. To her it looked like the her room was home to a clean freak, but as she passed the other rooms in the house that weren't for guests the rooms were littered with scrolls, feathers, trinkets, orange pill bottles, paintings that moved with it's lovely red haired and black haired couple smiling and waving at her, books lay scattered on the floor, and there were a number of opened and unopened boxes lying everywhere. This house just seemed to be a haven to a homeless person who hides their goods here._

_She tripped on a stray pill bottle and would have fallen over more boxes if it weren't for the roll of cellophane to prevent that. Unfortunately for her, Harry hasn't come back to check on her. _

"_What a terrible host," she muttered as she dusted herself off. _

_She walked around some more until she found the kitchen. A figure was hunched up over the table that is typically used to eat on, but instead was used to polish a broomstick._

"_You have to realize, Harry, that all you have is me. Oh, and of course two of my personal servants. More like golems, but they do serve their purposes well…" a strange voice whispered. It sounded more like a snake hissing, than actual talking. _

"_Don't you eat?" she asked him._

_He quickly grabbed the broom and was about to attack her with it._

"_What? Are you going to hit me with a broom? Tacky," she muttered._

_Harry gently set the broom back on the table and said sheepishly, "Sorry. I didn't realize you were awake. Hungry?"_

"_Who were you talking to just now?" she asked him, though she knew exactly whom it belonged to, you can never forget the Dark Lord._

"_You. Are you still feverish? Here have some…," Harry went over to the cabinets and realized that they were empty. He only got the house a couple of months ago and he hasn't had time to do much, besides polishing his broom and stacking boxes that really shouldn't be stacked. "I'll treat you out then. There's a good pub down the way. How old are you?"_

"_Just sixteen and a quarter," she said. She said rudely, "And you are?"_

"_Technically and truthfully, I should be eighteen, but some unfortunate event has occurred and left me permanently five years older. So I'm twenty-three," Harry said slowly waving his hands around in front of him. _

"_I'll go with twenty then or twenty-one. I'm not up for pubs. Something more…up class."_

"_There's a man who sells chips on Dowling Street if you want to grab a bite. Pretty darn good chips too," Harry said thoughtfully. "Though if you want there is that new restaurant near that one building…Do you want to change or not?"_

"_I don't have any other change of clothes with me. My…uh…family kicked me out today. Then those thugs took my stuff. So I own nothing but the clothes on my back," she said nodding. "We should save this talk over dinner."_

"_Yes, but once you change your shirt. Here," Harry said. He disappeared between two swinging doors and came back a minute later with a shirt in his hand. _

"_What is this? XXXL? Are you saying I'm fat?" she asked him glaring at him. She threw the overlarge shirt back at him. "You're not one of those people who use to weigh over 500 pounds and then lost the weight somehow are you?"_

"_No. I think I've been thin all my life…"_

"_More like lean and not too shabby looking," she whispered._

"_What was that?" Harry asked her. He tossed the shirt across the room. _

"_Nothing."_

"_Okay. I have some extra money so we'll go to your fancy restaurant, but after we get you something new to wear," Harry said shaking his head with his hand over his forehead shielding his scar._

"_Sounds super. Let's go, I'm starving now," she said. _

_Though she hardly knew her way around the house, the front door is always where it is suppose to be in every home. Harry let her drag him as he let himself mull over of what he just done. He just took care of a stranger, a muggle no less, and now he's treating her to clothes and dinner. At least he decided to live in muggle London, rather than the wizarding portion. _

"_I think it'd be faster if we used my bike," Harry said. He locked his door with a key and led the way._

"_A bicycle? You've got to be kidding me," she said laughing._

"_I have a bicycle if you want to use that, though I don't know how to ride it…" Harry said. _

_They reached the side of the large cottage and pulled off the tarp that covered Sirius' old motorcycle. Harry took off the three helmets from the seat and offered her one as he put one on his head and the other on the ground. He swung a leg over and started the motorcycle._

"_Wow," was all she could say. She put her helmet on and sat behind Harry. "You do have some sort of license, yeah?"_

"_Nope," Harry said before the motorcycle sped out of the driveway and they went past the gate. He felt her tighten her hold on him. "Do you trust me?"_

"_We'll see!" she said frightened. She shut her eyes and tried to shut out the sound of the wind passing them quickly. The sound of the gravel and road disappeared; it was as if they were flying! She realized that they stopped and she opened her eyes again. "What happened, stupid?"_

"_Well typically, I thought red means stop and green means go. Hold on!" Harry said and they were off again. _

_Harry spent a good hour of waiting for her to choose clothes. When she was finished, she only bought two shirts, three jeans, one beret, one leather jacket, toe socks, and a small bag of sweets._

"_Oh I wish my boyfriend would spoil me like this," the shop woman said. "Mind if I borrow yours?"_

"_Oh, we're not…" Harry said quickly shaking his head._

"_Of course we're not!" she said. She whispered to the woman who leaned towards her with great interest, "Officially."_

_The shop woman only giggled and let them finish paying. She changed into her new clothes and topped her head with the beret since the climate was beginning to get chilly. _

"_Thanks, chum," she said. She quickly handed Harry the bags so that she can skip back to where they parked. "Aren't you going to change?"_

"_Why bother? Here," Harry handed her the helmet._

"_Because it's cold and all you're wearing is that hoodie and those tacky jeans. And to think that a man with your wealth could at least wear and buy something less tasteless and more moderate."_

"_I've been out of the loop. Are you holding on? Good," Harry said and he put his foot on the gas pedal. _

'_Why is she still around me if she doesn't like me?' Harry thought while focusing on the road. _

'_Because she's young and stupid? Well both of you are. You need the company anyways without me draining your energy. Be nice now,' the hissing voice said inside his head._

'_That's rich coming from you,' Harry thought, but no one responded back. _

"_So where are we going now?" she asked him while holding on him for dear life. Luckily, the beret didn't come off her head as Harry sped down the street._

_He didn't answer her for some time until they stopped. Harry kicked the bike stand down and got off leaving the young woman still seated. "Here."_

"_Here?" She asked and pouted. The restaurant looked more like shack. _

"_Here. I don't eat here usually, but it looks interesting."_

"_Maybe because it's an inn?" _

"_Nope, but this is a restaurant that not many mu…people know about. Come on," Harry said and opened the door for her._

"_Impossible," she muttered to herself. She got off from the motorbike and went past Harry. "Wow," she said when she was inside._

"_Told you," Harry said watching her._

"_Impossible. It just looked like a shabby shack, but the inside it's so huge and elegant! Nice choice, Harry," she said not noticing her mistake._

_But Harry did. He went from smiling to frowning the next. He grabbed her wrist roughly and pulled her a little closer to him and whispered, "How do you know my name? I never told you and there was nothing in the house that you could have seen with my name there. You're not a witch or reporter are you?"_

"_Oh, please, Harry," she said as if it were the funniest thing he said. "I'll tell you once we're eating. I'm starving!"_

_The server led them to a table for two. Harry quickly pushed her in her seat and roughly pushed it close to the table. When Harry was seated, the waiter handed them their menus. It was relatively quiet if it weren't for the other witches and wizards whispered around Harry and the unknown girl with him, and that she was throwing questions at him which he didn't answer. He only told the waiter what he wanted, handed the waiter his menu, and looked at her._

"_What? Do I have something on my face?" _

"_What's your name?" Harry asked her seriously._

"_Don't have one. Even if I did, you'd laugh," she said scoffing. _

"_Then, I'll just give you a name. Let me introduce myself then," Harry said. He cleared his throat, "Hello. It's nice to meet you, Jezebel. Do you mind if I call you Jessie then because you don't look like a Joey or Bela Lugosi?"_

"_Stop with this nonsense! My name is Datura Stramonium Lactucarium. Sheesh, I told you it was a stupid name," Datura said._

_Harry cocked an eyebrow at her and took a sip from his cup. He watched as his cup slowly filled up again by itself. He said, "You're right. Who in their right mind would name their child that? No offense, Jessie."_

"_Don't call me that."_

"_Datura then? No? How about Dat? Tura? Ura? Those don't sound like they fit you, I like Jessie better. Unless you'd like to make up a name for yourself?" Harry suggested._

"_Stupid… I –"_

"_You want me to call you 'Stupid'?" Harry shook his head and looked down. "If it makes you happy…"_

"_Stop!" she said a little too loudly, several witches and wizards looked their way. "I wasn't finished, stupid, that's you. Go ahead and call me 'Jessie' then," she said angrily._

_Harry clapped his hands once. "Oh, good. For a minute there, I thought you didn't know what to call yourself. Thanks."_

_Their food appeared out of nowhere in front of them._

"_So tell me more about you, other than your name," Harry said. _

"_Well I'm not a witch, but I am. It's complicated, my magic just suddenly came to me a few months ago, but my family was too embarrassed to send their apparently squib of a daughter to Hogwarts or any other wizarding school. I had self-taught myself magic through the books with an old wand when my family wasn't around. So one day they found out, kept the wand, and they kicked me out a week ago I think and you know the rest." _

"_Bugger that. Is there an ash tray here? Fantastic," Harry said when he didn't find one. He knew her story was a fishy one, but he couldn't put her off yet. It seemed that there was something more to her that meets the eye. He finished his meal and while he waited he wanted a smoke._

"_Do you mind?" Datura "Jessie" asked, still trying to finish her food._

"_Nope. Should I?" Harry asked. He expertly shook the small carton and one cigarette came out. "Want to smoke a fag?"_

"_Yes, you should. You can get cancer from that. And no, I don't want one. Disgusting habit."_

"_Cancer? Well I'm pretty sure they'll find it sooner or later. So tell me about yourself since you seem to know so much about me," Harry said. He lit the cigarette and waved in the air before placing it on his lips._

"_Sir, this is a no smoking restaurant," the waiter said looking down at Harry as if he were some sort of dirty farm animal. He gasped when he saw Harry's famous lightning bolt scar. "Dreadfully sorry, Harry Potter sir. I didn't realize…"_

"_Nah, it is fine. Funny, you would think that since we can do magic we can make the smoke disappear from the area or at least hide the smell of it, right? Sort of like this," Harry said. He pulled out his wand and wordlessly muttered an incantation. The fading smoke over their table disappeared, along with the smell. "Eh? Where'd it all go? It was almost like magic! Can you believe that?"_

_Harry silently cursed the part of Voldemort that seemed to make him more like the spirit than himself. He hoped he wouldn't go bald soon. _

"_I'm sorry, sir," the waiter apologized. He added as if trying to redeem himself, "My, I must say I have read your latest novel and find it superb. Especially the part where you faced off the dragon in the first task."_

"_No need to be sorry. I'll just not smoke next time. That is if I eat here again…" Harry said imitating Snape's deadpanned voice. He ignored the comment about his novel. _

_Since Harry didn't actually finish his schooling at Hogwarts because he was away finding the remaining Horcrux and Voldemort, he could not hold a place in the Auror ways. Headmistress Minerva McGonagall had tried to give him an alternative way of finishing his education there when he was checked out the hospital ward in Hogwarts, but Harry was bombarded by the press and wizard officials trying to confirm that Voldemort is dead, even then he could not find any time to do anything. _

_He decided to spend his time writing about the seven years he had spent at Hogwarts in both the wizarding world as his memoirs and in the muggle world as fiction in a third person view. Both sides found his stories to be remarkable and he made quite a considerable amount of money from the first four years. He only finished with the last three years after he recovered from his fall and memories, he had left out a few details about the ending in the seventh seeing as how the world would does not need to know. So from his inheritance and novels, he had enough money to last a couple of generations before the well dried up. He was thinking about going straight to the Auror in charge or joining the British Quidditch team, but the events that happened next would prevent him so. _

_He saw the waiter visibly pale and Harry quickly said, "Just kidding!"_

"_Oh, Merlin! You've almost had me going there Mister Potter," the waiter said holding a hand to his chest._

"_Yeah, well it looks like she's done and I'm done so we must be going now," Harry said._

"_What? I'm not done yet!" Jessie protested._

"_Here, this should cover for the meal, your tip, and a little extra for the house elves. Adieu," Harry said. It looked like he just put a small sack of pure golden coins on the table before grabbing the young woman and dashed towards the motorbike. "I guess since the jig is up, you don't mind if I did this." _

"_Do what?" she asked him but she felt an unfamiliar feeling as if something hooked around her navel and pulled her towards them. She retched beside them when it was over._

"_I don't think that part was supposed to happen, but we're home! Feel free to stay as long as you want and do as you want here, as long as you ask me. So you know where you're room is? Good. Then, I'll see you in the morning!" Harry said. He had guided the motorcycle back to its place on the side and unlocked the door so that they could enter. He left her with the door opened as he disappeared into one of the rooms._

"_Idiot," Datura "Jessie" muttered and closed the door behind her. _

_The next two months were a blur for Harry as with each passing moment he seemed to be more and more intoxicated about her. There was something odd about the young woman, but every time he thought about it his mind would go fuzzy. Harry taught Jessie how to do some simple spells with the wand he bought her. She taught him how to relieve the stresses of previous ordeals...in the bed, tables littered with paper, and the swimming pool to name a few._

_He had finally proposed to her while they were swimming in his backyard pond that he created, a month and a half from when he encountered her. The whole wizarding world knew that the Boy-Who-Lived would be marrying to a witch who no one even knew. Owls and magical folk bombarded them for the weeks after that. The press wanted interviews and the people wanted invitations. Rita Skeeter and Luna Lovegood were the only two reporters allowed to the private wedding inside while any other reporter and uninvited people had to wait outside, they would be surprised of what would come falling on top of them. _

_The Weasley's and Hermione had thought that he was barking mad to be a boy at his age to marry a stranger and they found it to be a joke! Harry had sent them numerous owls and had personally came to check on them to see if they got the invitation, but each time they wouldn't even open the door for him, letting him just stand there. _

_Then the day of the wedding, Harry was missing his best man, Ron, but luckily Remus was there to help. Harry had a strange feeling that the older wizard was there out of pity than love. He tried to smile, but it faltered as he felt something inside him slowly break off as he realized this. The only person in the world who has shown him something close to love was Jessie, but that would all prove to be false as shards of coloured glass pierced him to the very core of his being. _

"_Wake up, Captain Jack Sparrow," that silky voice said. It sounded so familiar, if only he could place where! _

"_Wake up?" he asked. The image cracked and the darkness swallowed him whole._

"_Of course, my good man, because you have a meeting at the gallows! See you there!" That was it! The voice belonged to that lying Har- _


	24. Barely Listening

When Jack woke up, he found that there was light streaming through the crack between the heavy drapes. It seemed that he slept through the rest of previous day and now it is morning. It was no longer storming, but a heavy fog was present. His eyes narrowed when he thought of the owner of the silky voice.

'That damned -! Wait…I can sit up without not so much as wince?' Jack thought. He cocked his eyebrow and poked himself. Nothing, no pain at all.

He couldn't tell Elizabeth, but the pain seemed to dull after Mrs. Norrington held onto him for dear life and he bled through the bandages again. It reminded him of a rag and red wine. Except that his pain did not just dull, he didn't feel anything at all. It was like someone had pulled a switch in his head to stop the pain reaching his brain, except it seemed permanent.

Elizabeth was right; he hasn't eaten much since his arrival. Though he has had rum, it wasn't solid enough or had the necessary vitamins to keep him alive. Even back on the island where he was marooned, there were coconuts and food that the rum runners provided for him. Something's not right.

Jack got up gingerly from the bed and waited for the wave of nausea, but it didn't come. He didn't feel sick, but he didn't feel well either. Maybe it is some new form of coping with the pain? Whatever it was, Jack felt like eating corn and drinking rum, mostly rum.

Luckily, as he crossed the room, it was just the area where he was shot that was numbed the rest of his body felt fine, but tired. He had a little difficulty moving his limbs, it felt like he has been swimming for quite some time and he can't stop or else he'll drown.

He opened the door and found that the guards were sound asleep on their posts around his door. He nudged them with the heel of his boot, but the only response he got was a loud snore. Jack looked around cautiously before deciding that no one else was awake or that they were tricking him. Before he left though, he yelled in their ears and again just to be sure, but there was no response to show that they were awake.

He threaded through the hallways trying to find the kitchen. As his footsteps were muffled by the carpet, he realized now that everything was quiet. Not just in the house, but there were no sounds of birds chirping, chickens clucking, or kids playing. It couldn't be that early, could it?

When he opened doors, they creaked eerily in the still morning through the still house. There were no maids telling him to move along so they can continue their chores, or butlers pushing him aside showing him how to open a door more quickly. Nothing.

After what seemed like endless searching through the cavernous home, he found the kitchen. Funny that it was through the door that the maids took and down the hall to the left after the third door past the antique flower vase full of lilies of yesterday and there was no marker to mark the kitchen.

Still, no one was there to scold him to bugger off. He did not like this sort of freedom in their home mainly because there was a certain linger in the air that he could not place. As if someone had tampered with the household occupants, but Jack.

Jack walked in the kitchen that glowed lightly from the waking sun. Dust swirled around him through the cracks in the opened and closed windows. There were no signs of the kitchen staff or the meal to be prepared for their masters. He grinned and walked around the table in the middle so he could gain access to the cabinets to the side. Jack figured that since there was not any rum in sight, they must have hidden it from him if he had decided to the rummage through, and rummage through he will.

He was rummaging through the cabinets and could find everything but anything that is not alcoholic. Suddenly, he heard a sound that sounded awfully like a person walking lightly and cocking their pistol. He slowly turned around with a small jar of salt, but he could not find anyone. He placed the salt on the counter below the cabinet and continued his search.

There! He heard someone cough! His head snapped up too quickly and he hit his head on the open cabinet door not at all lightly. Jack rubs his sore head and he slowly backed away from the cabinets. He did not want to seem as a threat where the person would shoot him.

The cough sounded a lot closer now! Jack could hear nothing but the blood rushing through him and the pounding in his heart. His hand slowly reached for his pistol only to remember that he had no additional shot left since he used it last during their pillaging. He grabbed the jar of salt again and hoped that the person had his eyes open, the pain it would cause.

Jack ducked down and he again hit his head, but this time on the kitchen counter. Again, he rubbed his head and slowly got up. He slowly crept backwards away from the cabinets. He decided then, it couldn't be helped that there was a stranger here to steal his friends' riches. But then again, they are his friends; perhaps he should do something…

He didn't realize that he had kept backing away until his foot hit the low bottom and made him propel backwards right through the open window. Jack didn't know what was happening. His arms flailed around as he tips over the edge before falling through.

Jack groaned from the dirt floor and an unusually bright sun glared at him. It felt like he should have died from the impact, but it was only on the first floor. Jack once again escaped death. He swayed as he got up and dusted himself off. He felt something stick to him and his hand came away with fresh blood. Still he did not feel any pain from there, but did feel lightheaded.

He realized that he was actually outside, no one heard him, no one around him, and he was actually outside! He could make his escape from Port Royal now and be away from all of this.


	25. Nausea

_A/N: The reason why I have the past in present tense is because it's more of a dream/flashback for Jack in which, he sees and thinks at the moment like Harry would at the moment. _

Jack strode away from the mansion and through the gates with an air of renewed confidence that cut through the fog easily. He felt like he was untouchable. He did strike it odd that there was no one else outside (that he could tell) and that even the chickens were not clucking. Then everything seemed to have sped up when wooden doors opened and a few men stumbled out of their house as if they had just woken up. Jack bolted on the spot and the fog helped him escape.

Wind whipped around him, creating a path from the fog. For Port Royal, this certainly was not a very good morning. Jack ran past the small huts they called houses and ran inside the closest hut, I mean home. He pulled open the door and threw himself inside banging the door closed. Something smelled good.

"What's to eat there, love?" Jack mumbled into the door. He pushed himself from the door and expected to see a lovely lass, or at least a lass, but didn't.

"What?" Ron Prewett asked. He turned around and Jack saw him holding a bloody cleaver in his hand.

Jack paled a little and looked around. There was the insane man with a bloody cleaver in his hand. The little boy, Philip, he was sprawled across the table. He wasn't moving.

"What are you doing here, Harry?" Ron asked clearly confused.

"I could be asking you the same thing," Jack retorted.

"What?"

"Aye. Well I see…you're busy. Bugger that…Another time perhaps? Ta," Jack said. He clapped his hands once before running out the door in a fright.

"Busy? I was just gutting the pig for breakfast," Ron said to himself. He looked at the mutilated pig.

"Who was that, Ron?" Hermione asked fixing her dress.

"Harry…" Ron said and looked at her.

"What! Did he remember?" Hermione asked gleefully.

"I don't think so. He just happened to come here by accident, I suppose. Am I doing this right?" Ron asked motioning towards the pig.

"What is that? It looks like you killed someone. Philip get off from the table now, you have a proper bed in the other room."

"A pig. That might be why he darted off like that," Ron said thoughtfully.

"You think?" Hermione asked sarcastically.

"Hold on," Ron said and went for the door.

Jack walked off as fast as he could without drawing attention to himself. When he turned back to look behind him, he saw Ron walk out the door with the cleaver still in his hand.

"Oof…Watch were yer going," Jack said. He backed a couple of steps away. He bumped right into "Harris Norrington".

"Next time, sir, I suggest you watch where you're going or else you might find yourself in a predicament. Right, Sparrow?" the man said calmly. "Don't take another step."

"There's a man there with a cleaver!" Jack said pointing at Ron. "I think he might have murdered his family. He's your man, not old Jack here."

"I would have to say that the man over there had only murdered a lowly animal for the first meal of the day. It is a shame you won't. So, Mr. Tillard, if you would be so kind as to –"

"I know. I know…Clap him in irons, right? Again…" Jack asks sorrowfully.

"You seem to know the drill that my brother had, but right to the gallows for you, Mr. Sparrow."

"He's not your brother."

"What? Of course he is," Harris said.

"Nope."

"He is."

"Isn't."

"Is."

"Isn't."

"Is! Now stop that!" He sneered at Jack.

"Nope. You're a liar and a fraud. I won't be in the company with the likes of ye," Jack said not very convincing.

"Me? What about you? You do realize what you are, pirate! Even more lowly than that butchered animal," Harris spat.

"I'm telling you, mate, you're not who you sayin' you are," Jack said.

"And I'm telling you that you are not you say you are either," Harris said leaning towards Jack.

"What do you mean?" Jack asked puzzled and looked at Harris. Clearly the man knew more than Jack did.

"Why do you think I'm here?" Harris asked him.

_Click_

Jack looked down and saw that Harris was close enough to clasp him in irons without Jack noticing. That's the second time that's happened!


	26. Stuck in a Moment

_A/N: Somewhat ambiguous spoiler. Sorry for the confusion, so don't hesitate to bombard me with questions XD Jack wasn't hallucinating, just the effects of weariness and such the such part you'll learn a bit more in future chapters and not to mention how strange the scene before him looked. As for your questions: yes and yes. Enjoy!_

Everyone who was anyone scrambled out of their homes in their finest clothing the moment they heard the announcement. They wore their finest because they found it to be more of a social gathering and must appease their own status in front of everyone.

"Can you believe that pirate? Always getting caught, he certainly is the worst pirate I've ever heard of," a snotty nasally voice belonging to a weasel looking woman said.

"Too true, Nadine," a young woman said with her nose in the air. "But has he not also escaped the noose multiple times?"

"Too true," Nadine said nodding.

"I wonder how he'll escape this time…"

"If he escapes," Nadine said with disdain. "But with Port Royal's newest Navy men, I doubt he will."

Will and Elizabeth tried not to listen the conversations going on around them from inside their coach, but they could not block them and the dread. How did they manage to sleep through the morning and part of the afternoon? Though the staff and the men watching Jack denied waking up late, the young couple saw through their lies. Jack seemed to have been impervious to the sleep that wrapped its way around the rest of them and he probably sought out his escape.

When they arrived right when the town clerk started to read off the crimes that Jack has committed over long years as a pirate and his pseudo-dual roles. There was Jack next to the executioner and noose. He stood tall and proud for a man whose wrongdoings are being said out loud and facing death at the gallows once again.

As the town clerk said Jack's crimes, the pirate seemed to have been in a daze because usually, last time, he smiled and joked a little upon his previous crimes. Though he stood tall, his breathing became erratic and the blood seeped through the tough material of his clothing. His face was bleached of all colour, however, not because of the gallows but because of blood loss.

"This is still wrong. Can't you do anything?" Elizabeth asked turning towards Will. She looked straight into his dark eyes as if searching for an answer.

He shook his head grimly and in a defeated tone said, "All I have is this dagger. It was the one that my father gave me. Still sharp, but it's not meant to cut rope easily."

Suddenly, the drums stopped. The town cleric has finished. The executioner stepped forward and was ready to pull the lever. Everything was still and quiet.

Jack seemed to come back to life, for he clucked his tongue. He looked around the crowd as if searching for a friendly face among strangers and enemies. He did find that redhead and his family, they were a few feet away from him. Will and Elizabeth were a few feet to the left, his left, of them and they seemed like they were planning something. In the shadows, there was he somewhat loyal crew. He didn't expect either group to help him. This was it.

He looked at the executioner and noticed something. It annoyed him that the other man didn't even attempt to swipe it away. Jack boldly stepped forward towards him and the executioner stepped back fearfully. With his wrists bound together, he lifted them up as one, quickly removed the stray colourful feather with a flick of his wrist and released it back into the sky. There was a slight breeze and it fluttered back on the executioners' head. He stepped back to remove it only to be angrily pushed back.

"Enough!"

"Last word?" Jack blurted out weakly.

The town clerk looked at him disapprovingly through his spectacles. Jack had a feeling that the man was imaging himself as the one to pull the lever.

"Make it quick," The phony Norrington said.

"Thanks, mate. As you all know, I am Captain Jack Sparrow! The most feared pirate of the Seven Seas and ladies man, as some would say. Today, is probably a most joyous occasion for ye, much drinking afterwards I expect. Just know that this is the day that you will always remember as the day that yo-ahh!"

In the next second, Jack was cut off and he choked on the words that he won't be able to utter to his audience. The executioner had pulled the lever and the trap door beneath Jack had collapsed down.


	27. Requiem for a Dream

Elizabeth buried her head in Will's shoulder at the sight of Jack being hung. Tears were forming in her eyes and threatening to fall.

Will held her as he watched his friend fall. Sadness and regret pooled into his heart as he couldn't save Jack. He bowed his head low.

"Lord! He's alive!" an elderly man said to his son.

"That pirate…what if he's the one that the devil spat back out?" he asked his father frightened.

"Nah…he's not the only pirate in there here shores. Shame he has that small neck…Rope probably wasn't on tight enough for that thin frame. He looks mighty pained there."

"Good. He deserves it."

Will and Elizabeth immediately snapped their heads up and there was Jack still hanging. Now they noticed that he was kicking slightly and he managed to pull his hands under his legs before he fell, so now his still bound hands were grasping at the rope that looped tightly around his neck. They could hear his strangled breaths, but they knew it wouldn't be long before his neck did snap under his weight.

"We've got to do something," Will said quickly. He took Elizabeth's hand into his own.

The young couple stepped down from the stoop and proceeded towards Jack, pushing their way through as people were too preoccupied watching Jack hang.

Just as they reached Jack, there was a bright light that came out of no where. They were blown back along with everyone else and the fort seemed to have swayed from underneath them by the blinding light. People screamed and birds took off from the rafters.

"Elizabeth!" Will yelled through the chaos. During the past second, her hand left his. He grasped blindly on the ground looking for her.

"Will!" she sounded just a foot away from him.

"Elizabeth!" Will said. His hand grasped hers, but it felt different. He held her close to him and her hair felt coarse compared to her usual soft, sleek hair. Did that light do more than just stun them? He was able to make out fuzzy shapes and outlines now, but still couldn't see Elizabeth's features.

"Will…" Elizabeth's bemused voice came in front of him.

As his sight returned, he quickly let go an elderly sailor and rushed towards Elizabeth. This time he made sure that it was Elizabeth before embracing her.

"I thought for a moment…" Elizabeth started to say.

"Thought what?" Will looked at her imploringly.

"I thought…I thought you died or…something. There was that blast and oh…Will," Elizabeth said sounding relieved that no harm had came to either of them, especially to their…

"HE'S GONE!" Harris Beckett barked. He was one of the few standing. He was holding his bleeding forehead and staggered forward towards where Jack was last. The rope was missing along with Jack. There was not a trace of him, save for the specks of blood on the ground below and on the trapdoor that slid down. "MEN! SEARCH THE WHOLE FORT! HE MUST NOT BE ALLOWED TO LIVE! YOU TWO!"

He staggered towards Will and Elizabeth as the Navy soldiers, who were still blinded or partially blinded, did what they were told.

"What do you want?" Will said standing between them.

"Come with me, quick. There isn't much time left…for either of us. Quickly now!" Harris grabbed them both around the elbows and ushered them towards a secluded area of the battlement. "Dreadfully sorry about your dress, Miss Swann," Harris said without looking down at his bloodied hand that stained her elbow. He did not call her informally. He seemed a different man, a scared man.

"What is it?" Elizabeth urged him to hurry with what he was saying. She wanted to look for Jack before it was too late also.

Harris looked around wildly to make sure that there really was no one else but them. There wasn't as the people of Port Royal were still disoriented.

"Look," He said addressing both Will and Elizabeth, looking them both in the eye. "First off, I know that Jack has told you that I am not the brother or relative of the deceased James Norrington. He's right –"

"What?" Will asked genuinely confused. He was not aware of this.

"I'll explain to you later, Will. Let this _man_ finish what he's saying," Elizabeth said somewhat eager to know what this was all about.

"Thank you, Miss Swann. You've met that new family, right? No, I don't know them, personally," he said noticing the look that he got from the young couple. "Now don't interrupt. There's no time for that. That family, myself, and your friend Jack Sparrow, though he may not recall ever being there with what I gave him, we're all from the same place and at the same time: the future. Jack Sparrow really is Harry Potter, both famous in their respective times and both somewhat mentally unstable and heroic. I don't know what that family is really up to, but they are trying to drag Jack back to the future with them and that will cause a paradox here, in time because this is the day it was told that Jack Sparrow dies. That family has caused much trouble already, it is their third time here in the past, but they were always too late or too early, but now they've done it. No, they haven't taken him to the future yet. Now go do that thing you do and save your friend. He should be in their house, really shabby looking thing by the port's port. You should see a broken pig pen with no pigs inside it besides the house. Now I'll be seeing you."

"What?" Will and Elizabeth asked once he finished. What he said, completely flew over their heads, yet they heard and understood every word. This is insane!

"Who are you?"

"My name is –"

"Hey!"

They craned their necks to see to sea the old salt limping towards them. There was a strange 'pop' sound.

"Will! Miss Swann!" Gibbs hollered. The rest of the crew trailed after him, they seemed alright.

"What the -?" Elizabeth started to say.

The imposter Harris Norrington has disappeared! There was only one way out and they were facing it and if he had jumped off from the battlements, they would of heard his body collide with the rushing waters below.

"Mr. Gibbs, did you just see that Norrington with us?" Will asked when he reached them.

"Nay, can't say I 'ave. Where be Jack?"

"How could of Jack done that? Last thing I remembered, he couldn't do that!" Anamaria asked nearly hysteric.

"He didn't. That new family that moved into Port Royal did and took Jack," Elizabeth said. She pushed past Jack's crew and was beginning the search for Jack.

"What do ye mean they 'ook Jack?"

"Come, we'll explain on the way."


	28. Sweet Dreams

**Author's Note: Sorry for not updating in almost a month. Since the new semester started I've been piled with essays, exams, homework, and procrastinations. The life of a full-time, 17 hour credit college student. Please bare with me with the timing of the updates. Sorry again. Also, the DISCLAIMER is on my profile, but just in case: I don't own anything pertaining Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean, and the hopefully obvious future scenerios/details you may notice that will happen in the story from various movies that Johnny Depp has been in. **

"_Stay still," a voice hissed angrily. "And hold your head up. Keep it up."_

_A hand lifts up a thin stick, flicks it to the side, and the young man enshrouded by the dim lighting and shadows in the sparse room, reels back from the curse only to be levitated back on his feet. _

_The only furnishings in the room was the wooden table still covered by a sheet, a blood red loveseat made of the finest elegant yew and satin, the dark and dusty brick fireplace that slowly burned the wood and provided the only light source, a palette, a floating enchanted canvas, and three men. _

_One of the men wore only a tattered black robe who wore a frightful skull mask, he guided with his wand the paint brush on the canvas as it burst into life. The second man, wore only an elegant black silk robe as he lay idly on the loveseat. In his left hand was another skull mask and in the other there was his wand, which was currently pointed to the third man. His face look inhuman, very snake-like. There was no hair visible on his head and his eyes held a venomous look. The third man, was more of a boy compared to his companions. He stood behind the second man from the loveseat. Though he was dressed a fine robe and slacks, it was obvious he was not treated that way from the fading bruises of various shades of green and yellow gold on his head. His hair looked like it was clipped with the dullest scissors by a very timid person and the back part still managed to stick up. There was a healing cut on his upper lip and he looked like someone who has not known what happiness was. There was a scar on his forehead in the shape of a lightning bolt descending down towards the Earth that will strike down anything in its path. Though he looked half-dead, it was his eyes that made him look eerie on his pale face. Eyes as green as an emerald, but there was a shadow beneath those amazing eyes, a shadow of defeat. _

_Right now the youngest of the three men had accidentally twitched, a little aftereffect of one of the Unforgivable Curses, and the snake-like man cursed him angrily, he did not want his last and only portrait ruined. _

"_Forgive me Dark Lord, but perhaps Severus could help you control the boy. Shall I fetch him?" the painter asked hoping to leave the uncomfortable room. _

"_Do you doubt that I can control him? He is much more loyal to me like a dog to his master and you are even more lowly than a dog. But like certain mutts, they'll turn on their masters. Is that not so, Harry Potter?" the Dark Lord Voldemort hissed last in Parseltongue towards the young man behind him. _

"_Nooo. I do as you please," Harry hissed back in Parseltongue. His scar was burning, but his face did not dare show the pain. _

"_Liar! You're heart may think that you've deceived me so, but it your mind that tells me the truth. There are others out there who will abuse you. But –"_

"_Like what you're doing to me?" he retorted._

"_Perhaps. Each to their own ways of abuse, Potter, as you surely know by living with those muggle relatives of yours. Everybody is looking for something in you. Tell me the rest of the prophecy and your muggle loving friends and their families will live. I may even tell you how to save your godfather's soul."_

"_Sirius?" Harry hissed wistfully. A flare of anger and longing burst into his heart. It's been so long…He slowly walked away from the back of the loveseat and was a good distance between the two wizards. "Okay. I'll tell you…I'll tell you the rest of the prophecy. It's just that you might not handle it."_

"_Get on with it, Potter!"_

"_Okay, but don't say I didn't warn you. The prophecy goes like this," he cleared his throat. "The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches. Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies. And the Dark Lord will swipe him off his feet, but he will not be defeated…And either must dance at the hand of the other for neither can while the floor is full. The one with the moves will be born as the seventh month dies…"_

'_Bloody hell…Why'd I go and say that right in front of him? Great. He's looking at me with that look,' Harry thought. His scar throbbed, but it did not feel like it will kill him yet. He walked slowly backwards, towards the door._

"_Potter…"_

"_Yes, Voldemort?" Harry stopped and asked innocently as if he did not utter that ridiculous prophecy._

"_Be honest now. You can not possibly make me believe that is the prophecy," Voldemort hissed out angrily._

"_Why not? I'm not the seer here," Harry said shrugging ignoring the growing pain building from his scar. His hid his hands in the sleeves of his robes. "Maybe you need to decipher the words or something. There should be a secret meaning in what those seers say, right?" _

_Voldemort sighed. He lifted his wand and muttered lazily, "Crucio." _

_Harry fell backwards and slammed his head on the hard floor. The pain throbbed angrily, but was almost drowned out by the pain caused by the curse. The writhed on the floor in agony as Voldemort and the Death Eater watched him full of mirth. Voldemort looked less happy when Harry did not scream._

"_Potter. Potter. Potter. When will you learn…NOT TO DEFY ME?" Voldemort spat out angrily._

_There was a knock on the door and the curse was lifted._

"_Enter," Voldemort drawled angrily. He hoped that another minute under the curse would pour the prophecy out from Potter's mouth. _

_Bellatrix Lestrange glided through the door. She stepped on Harry's aching body before bowing before Voldemort and kissing the hem of his robes. A flare of anger rose out of Harry when he remembered what had transpired to get that damned prophecy and she was the cause of most of his pain. _

"_Bella! What news have you brought me?"_

"_They are still searching for the boy, master. They have everyone looking for him, but I am sure you will rise victorious!" She looked even more deranged than when Harry last saw her, a year ago, or so he thought. _

"_Excellent. I doubt his friends would even know how close they were in finding him. You shall be rewarded greatly Bella," Voldemort said. He helped her rise to her feet. _

"_Master…it seems that little baby Potter still needs to grow up. May I, master, as my reward?" her voice grew sinister and Harry did not like what she might have or have not implied._

"_Bella…" Voldemort seemed to scold her, but he was not angry._

"_Please, master! I promise not to do harm to him. Just one day in that room of yours and I will teach him the proper etiquette in behaving for you, master," Bella pleaded and bowed as low to the ground as she could. "Consider it, master."_

_Voldemort thought for a moment and looked at him lying on the ground like that. "One day," was all he said. _

'_One day? In there with her?' he thought and could feel his insides churn at the thought of spending a month and a half with her…in that room. The room where time is enchanted and no one could help. It almost makes him want to give up on life, but he knows he can't, even if he is driven insane by Voldemort and his followers. _

"_Thank you, master," Bella said taking one last bow in front of the snake-like man._

Who knew that I wouldn't have escaped if it weren't for that little incident with Bella, killer of Sirius Black...


	29. It Ends Tonight

_Author's Note: Before you begin reading, I'm really sorry about not updating in more than a month. Between classes, essays, mid-terms, studying, and now, World of Warcraft, I haven't had time to actually sit down infront of the computer and type up a chapter. Sorry again and I hope you enjoy this chapter._

With his eyes closed, he knew he was even more trouble than when he last opened them. He was starting to find some difficulty opening them. His hands were still bound and his side was now throbbing. 'This is it,' he thought grimly. 'The end of the great, fantastic, feared and heroic pirate of the Seven Seas…Captain Jack Sparrow in some dingy shack.'

"Bloody hell! Where is your mother? The portkey is going to activate in half an hour!" came the voice of that annoying red-haired man.

'Portkey?' Jack mused with his eyes closed. He's never heard of that, yet it rings a familiar bell.

"Philip!" came the man's voice sharp as an axe. "Stop ringing that bell! Right now, we don't want to draw attention to ourselves. Once we're back in our own time, then you can ring as many bells as you want without annoying anyone."

"Sorry, dad," came the young boy's soft reply and the ringing stopped.

"Endora?"

"Yes, papa?" came her young sweet voice.

"Check on Harry," he sounded worried.

"Okay, papa," she said.

Jack could hear her muffled footsteps come closer towards where he was at. He tried to feign rest, but it was getting difficult to breathe.

When Endora saw him, he sat in a posture of intense exhaustion. The pirate captain ex-wizard's head had slumped sideways with his legs lolled left and right. She heard the rasping of his breath and his eyes were closed. She could see something dark against his rough clothing.

She shuffled her feet closer towards the man and peered at the dark material. She put a hand down towards it and didn't notice the slight shudder that ran through Jack. Straightening herself, in the light she saw a red wetness smeared across her delicate fingers. She gasped loudly.

"Endora? What is it?" Ron asked after hearing his eldest child gasp. "What!"

Endora's back was towards Ron, but facing the conscious Jack Sparrow with his arms embracing her around the shoulders.

"Let go of her!" came Ron's shaky voice. His hands fumbled to reach something in his pocket.

"Or else what? You'll hit us both and I don't think you'd want your daughter to feel whatever pain her father is going to inflict on said innocent man, would you?" Jack said.

The rope was still bound across his wrists and it is momentarily serving its purpose of helping Jack keep the girl still. Though there were no weapons on him, Jack quickly scanned the poor excuse of a closet and spotted a bottle on the shelf next to him. He quickly took it and peered inside to see its contents. There were none, so he broke the end of it against the wall and pointed it towards the red-haired daughter. He had no intentions of harming the young lady or anyone.

Jack swayed a bit when he broke the bottle. His mind teetered on the edge of consciousness. His fingers loosened on his hold over Endora. His eyes were closing, but he forced them open. He feared the worse if he should close them.

Using his moment of being dazed, Endora elbowed him on the side, precisely where she remembered where the blood should be coming from. She heard him grunt and double back and stumble among the empty bottles and crates. She slipped out on his cold embrace, but not before getting nicked on the cheek from the broken end of the bottle.

Jack let go of the bottle and heard it crash with him as he fell to the ground on top of a crate full of empty bottles. He tried to get up, but it felt like his body was on fire, even more so when certain areas touch any more protruding glass that hasn't fallen over. Something warm trickled from his back making him want to shrug his shoulder to touch it though his mind was on something more important.

"My side…"

"Endora, are you okay?" her father asked her. "He cut you! I should have known! Bloody pirate! When I get my hands on him, I'm going –"

"Going to what? Kill me?" Jack asks ludicrously and laughed that came up more like a bark. He added darkly after spitting blood to the side, "Good luck."

"Daddy? What was that sound?" came Philip's voice in the background.

"Not now, Philip dear. Endora, go entertain your brother. I have to deal with him," Ron said glaring at the dying man.

"I do hope you're talking about me there," Jack said humorlessly. He was just lying there hoping that it was all a bad dream. He wouldn't mind if the past fifteen years has been all but a bad dream and he was on his ship sailing with his men having a few good rounds. His whole body was in pain. Why hasn't he died yet?

He heard a strange sound crack through the heavy air.

"Ronald Weasley!" a harsh whisper came behind the man in front of him. "Anyway, I had to come here with the kids and see how you were doing. I had to make sure that YOU didn't KILL anyone! Good news, no one is dead, but that doesn't mean you're off the hook for scaring all those muggles. Honestly, Ron…What the bloody hell?"

"What?"

"Why'd you stab him? I knew you were angry at him, but Merlin! You didn't have to kill him!"

"WHAT!"

"What's going on…? Jack!" came the pounding of no one other than young William Turner.

"Now we have trouble… Quick get the portkey!"

"What? Ron, we can't move him like this! He's going to be in more pain if you do."

"So? Come on, Hermione. I thought you were all for getting Harry and now here he is!" Ron said trying to reason with his wife.

"I know, Ron. I know, I missed him too, but I didn't think it'd be like this."

"Five minutes. Get your things together and we can leave this all behind us, literally," Ron said trying to joke at a time like this.

"Will! We have to get there!" Elizabeth said desperately.

Will continued to pound his shoulder and back into the wooden door. It wouldn't budge and no matter what Will did made it move, not even the door handle would shift.

There was a _crack_ and they jumped from the sound.

"You!" Will said drawing his sword out slower than usual with his sore arm.

"Me," was all _Harris _said. He was getting something from inside his jacket. "How am I suppose to drive the men away if you're making such a ruckus? Move aside. _Reducto."_

A surge of light blasted from the tip of what looked like a stick to them and made contact with the wooden door. It split open and they could see the youngest occupants moving into the next room.

"If you would excuse me…" _Harris_ said and with a sharp _crack_ in the air he was gone.

"What?"

"It doesn't matter! We have to get to Jack before who knows what will happen next!"

They rushed in the room, just as the red and brown haired family held an _ordinary_ pan as if it were some sort of treasure. They saw a nearly unconscious bleeding Jack being made to lean heavily on Ron. They saw them make Jack touch the pan also. Time seemed to slow as Will and Elizabeth rushed towards them and their hands motioned to knock the object out of their hands. In less than a fraction of second, they all disappeared…all of them.


	30. London Calling

"_Jack Sparrow…" a familiar thick accented woman said laughing his name as if it were something funny. She was swaying towards him through the thick black fog._

"_Tia? Whatever it is, I'm done. Yep. Just goin' around the seas with me ship from now on with the occasional adventure or two. Perhaps not," Jack said. He had no idea where he was or how he got there. He did feel better, physically as there was no more pain. In fact, he felt like he could have a nice run with the cannibals of Pelagoes again. _

_He heard Tia Dalma snap her fingers, or maybe broke someone else's fingers, and the black scenery was changed to that of her swamp shack at night. _

"_Ah, night time again I see," Jack said commenting. No matter how early he took the long boat to see Tia, it always turned to night when he came to see her. _

"_Do ye not care where ye end up?" Tia asked taking a step closer to him and wrapped her dark skin around his._

" _S'not I don't care. It's because I care that I don't care but still care all the same," Jack said relishing their embrace, but stepped away. "I've been dead. I came back. What more can I man like myself expect?"_

"_Aye, but that was in the Locker. Now you've strayed so far from home…there is no Locker for ye," Tia circled Jack with a finger trailing around him until she stopped in front of him. _

"_Have I now," Jack said rather than question the woman. "This will be fun."_

"_I have seen into dis and I find that you won't. Thrown back into a world which you do not want to be in. We will meet at a crossroad once more before yer death," Tia said walking away from him._

"_Literally or figurately?" Jack asked with a confused grin._

_Tia stopped and it looked like she was memorizing Jack's features. She shook her head and smiled before she completely disappeared._

There was an intense pain that started from his chest and worked its way through his whole body. Jack staggered back a few steps and closed his eyes from the pain. Pain laced everywhere and filled in spaces of him that he hasn't felt in a long while. He dropped to his knees and tried to breathe. He wasn't getting enough air to keep him alive. What is going on? Another shock of pain and he opened his eyes. He was no longer in Tia's swamp.

"He's in bad shape, but stable. Someone needs to get him more potions for that infection and the decayed flesh. Where the bloody hell is that blood replenishing potion?" a strange and angry voice demanded.

"I'll get it," a woman said.

There were people in white surrounding him. His eyes darted everywhere trying to find an exit, an escape. Hands held him down as he fought out of their grasp. Strange colours of light exploded in front of his eyes that came with strange words being spoken. Those strange _sticks_were being pointed at him, they were the cause of it all.

"Mr. Gibbs! Cotton! Martin?" Jack cried out the names of his crew. His arm was free and he thrust it out, as if expecting one of them to grab it and lead him away from this hell. No one did, they just held him down.

Jack continued to wrestle with them. If he must, he would have to take a hostage to ensure his freedom. But before he could move another muscle, a familiar voice broke through.

"Stupify," the red haired man, Ron, said pointing his _stick_ at him as a rush of red light hit him.

Just as his eyes closed, he saw a _snake-like man_ fill his vision. He could feel the hate radiating off the man and soaking itself inside him. He _hated_ that Ron! Looking at the pale face, a word entered his mind filling with hate. Just one word. He didn't even know what it meant. He didn't know he whispered it before the spell took it's toll in that split second.

"Voldemort…"

The room grew cold and quiet. They each knew what he said and shuddered while they watched the man sleep under them. Questions popped into their heads and the press would a field day with the return of Harry Potter. Now that Harry Potter was back in London after 18 years, will the real Voldemort come out of hiding? How will Harry Potter react to being in 2018 and being a father?

_The room was like a dungeon and it was full of people. There were strange devices everywhere and the people were in terrible fashion taste. On a higher platform, a group of old people wore these plum-coloured robes. He could almost see the silver 'W' embroidered into the front. There was something oddly __**magical **__about this place. He's been here before, but he can't recall when. _

_Strangely, he could __**feel**__ aches all over his body as he observes the room. He could feel the bandages bound tightly against all over his body. He felt the bandaged eye patch over his left eye and the limp that accompanied him as he took a step forward with his hand clutching a cane._

"_There, there now, Harry," he felt someone pat him lightly in the only area where he did not ache. The voice was oddly familiar and yet unfamiliar. "They'll see right through your ex…Best get in now before they'll drop the case."_

"_I hate anything relating to courts, law, drugs, potions, dark wizards out to get me, toad women, trials, potion masters with greasy hair and an abnormally sized nose," he heard himself say before the man next to him swatted the backside of his head. He sounded much younger and less drunk. "I'm injured here you know. Show some consideration to the Bloody-Boy-Who-Did-Not-Live-Happily-Ever-After. Who bloody pressed charges anyways? I just want to crawl into bed and wait for all this to blow over."_

"_Well you're here now and it was the wizarding world, the people you fought for," the familiar voice said. "They think they're doing YOU a favor. Funny." _

_He turned around and with his good eye he saw who was talking to him. The man was a few inches taller than him with greasy hair, well it wasn't __**that**__ greasy. There was a sense of familiarity with him, but he didn't press it. _

"_Fought for? Ha. I didn't know you knew how to tell jokes, golem. Pity."_

"_Sometimes I swear you sound just like our Dark Lord before he passed on…"_

"_Stick with the story we discussed. Voldemort is gone. You're some distant relative from Snape, my gardener. I'm mental. Scratch that, I am mental and tired."_

"_Whatever. Be glad I even bailed you from those muggle doctors or else they would have had their way with you-"_

"_Now that would have been a shame," he interrupted with a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth._

"_- and that darn potion did not heal you at all. Well it did, but then they re-broke themselves because you strained yourself before the potion could finish."_

"_A lesson learned," he said sounding empty and hollow. _

"_I don't see why you won't let them heal you magically."_

"_Because it makes the situation much more complicated. And I can only allow you to see those scars on my back. If anyone other than you did, they'd be hysterical. Take your place," he said. _

_He took one step into the dungeon of a court. It grew noticeably silent as the wizards and witches took in the silent of what remained of Harry James Potter, their tragic hero, their savior, their Boy-Who-Lived. Though he wore the finest clothes and robes in black with a dark green outlining the seems, which made him seem very much like a Slytherin, it did not hinder how terrible he looked during the past week since it happened and how much the young man could have aged._

_He crossed the room, knowing that everyone watched his every move with the strange man trailing him. He took a seat on a bench and saw the people he once called friends with their families, Remus Lupin and Tonks, a few of what remained of the Order of the Phoenix, his old Headmistress of Hogwarts, and Rita Skeeter. The people who weren't there were Charlie and Percy Weasley, Hagrid, Draco Malfoy, and Severus Snape, himself, because they were all deceased in the second half of the war. He ignored their comforting smiles and greetings. How could they still smile after all that has happened between them? _

_What happened in the next forty-five minutes, he tuned out. His head bobbed up and down as he fought to stay awake. It wasn't that the court was boring (though it was), it was because he was simply tired. On more than one occasion, he felt the golem next to him prod him sharply on the side. Then, he felt the golem place his arm on the back of the bench so that he was closer to him, close enough to whisper or kiss. Everyone behind them wondered what was happening between the two men as the younger of the two jerked his head up, look up, and then punch the man softly. _

_The older of the two would gently wrap his arm close to Harry and pull him towards him. He didn't resist because he was tired. For a few seconds, he was in blissful sleep surrounded in warmth from the body next to him. Then, without any warning, his body shuddered and he sat up straight. _

"_Are we boring you, Mister Potter?" someone from the Wizengamot asked._

"_No," he said. "I'm afraid it would be the medication my…doctor gave me. Side effects. Please continue with your…interrogation." _

"_Miss Lactucarium," an elderly looking wizard looked down from his papers. "Is there a clear motive of why you did this act?"_

"_When did they put her on?" Harry whispered tiredly._

"_For the past thirteen minutes or so. Give or take. She is putting up quite the performance."_

"_Was it an act in retaliation for You-Know-Who?" a new reporter asked. _

"_Was it because you didn't love him?" another asked._

"_Can you give us a statement?"_

"_Over here! Look this way!" Flashbulbs brought white spots to their eyes and Harry was almost sure he was close to having a seizer. _

"_Silence!" the elderly wizard said. The room grew quiet with the exception of several people still mumbling in the back and the scratch of their quills against the rough parchment._

"_Perhaps. Mainly because I didn't like him," Datura said. She was in a dirty gray robe and slouched in the chained chair. "And the nights were unbearable. Not that he was terrible in bed, he was possibly like some sort descendant lovechild of Ares and Eros because he was that good. Anyways, there'd be times at night were he had this nightmare. He told me about it once…I still find it all ridiculous. Can you believe that this savior of yours bawls like a wittle baby when he had a nightmare? Honestly, just because he saw a few close people to him die, really does ruins his image. I can hear him screaming even after I moved to the guest rooms on the other side of the mansion." _

"_Why did you not tell him so or wake him?"_

"_What's the point? He'll just do it again later in the week. So about the club thing…He was fine at first, but then he let those muggle clubbers into the basement and they partied all the time."_

"_Mister Potter, do you care to elaborate?"_

_He stifled down a yawn and nodded his head. "That mansion I own is both a licensed club-party-pub-thing and a home I go to relax in. I like to call it 'The Vortex' or 'P'. Got the papers back in the flat. Sure I let strangers in, but it's a club you know?"_

"_I haven't been to one in a while, Mister Potter," the wizard said. "Miss Lactucarium, what about the underground club did you not like?"_

"_It was loud –"_

"_I had installed a pretty heavy silencing charm there," Harry interrupted._

"_It smelled –"_

"_It's a club."_

"_Muggles always around –"_

"_It is a club you know."_

"_People smoking –"_

"_I smoke. See look," Harry said. He produced a cigarette from the inside of his robes and it was lit instantly. He took a huff and exhaled a few smoke rings towards her. _

"_Don't smoke while the court is in session, Mister Potter," Dolores Umbridge said nastily._

_Harry clicked his tongue while looking down trying to act ashamed as he snubbed out his cigarette by putting it in his pocket. It was extinguished immediately. The old toad of a witch looked around wildly._

"_Mumbler…"Harry muttered under his breath._

"_Smoking is a disgusting habit. I hope you die from lung cancer," Datura said._

"_And when I do, I'll make sure to find out if there is a smoking zone in hell. Until then, you're stuck with us, me."_

"_Enough! This is not a muggle conference! We will not tolerate this any longer!" the Elder said. _

_The Wizengamot discussed in silence. Very few hands rose in the air once and many rose in the air again. They looked uncertain, yet sticking with their votes._

"_You've done it now, Harry," the man next to him said._

"_Yeah? Well bugger this. I already know the outcome." _

"_And that is?"_

"_We hereby find that Miss Lactucarium is guilty for the crime she commited against Mister Potter and that she has served her time in Azkaban." The old wizard said his voice grave._

_People in the background started cheering and Harry could feel them trying to make him look at them._

"_But?" His voice rang out clear and strong against the cheers._

"_But, Mister Potter, we find that you are the cause of what she did. We are sentencing you to three weeks in house arrest and the guards of Azkaban will be stationed at every door on your property but not before staying in Azkaban with the newly reinstated dementors," he said with a twitch of a smile growing on the corners of hi wrinkled mouth. The old man winked at the direction of Datura. "And that Miss Lactucarium will receive half of the Potter gold to compensate her loss. Good day. Guards."_

"_Castor that is not what we voted upon," Harry heard one of the Wizengamot whisper sharply to the man._

_There were screams and yells of outbursts, but he knew. Someone behind him tittered; Datura smiled icily. Harry inspected his nails._

"_You knew, didn't you?" the golem said._

"_Now where's the fun in that?" he asked smiling. "Last word, governor?"_

"_What is it?" the elderly wizard asked smirking._

"_A moment with the missus er…miss?"_

"_If she will allow you so."_

"_Fine. I got and did what I wanted. No harm can come over me, Potter, while you're surrounded and being carted off to Azkaban. Been there for seven days and it wasn't pretty. So what do you want?" Datura asked smugly._

"_This," was all he said._

_He crossed the space between them and locked his lips with her. It was a chaste kiss though it lasted rather long. He felt her stiffen from his bold move and continued to hold onto the kiss even as the dementors came for him. As all the happiness was being sucked out from him, he felt the dementor pry him from Datura. Screams filled his head and he felt himself collide with the stone floor. It was finished._

"_Don't kiss him you bloody imbecile," he heard his faithful servant say to him in his droning voice. There was a flash of silver light and everything faded._

"_Incendio!" he heard Datura's voice and felt the tip of her wand pressing against his chest. Nothing happened and he heard her scream. "My magic!"_

"_Correction, my magic. Fifty points from the squib," he rasped out and his laugh came out like a bark. _

"_My lord," the golem kneeled next to him and lifted his head up. He slipped his wand into the sleeve of the other._

"_Your magic! Your magic! You mean MY magic!" Datura said hysterically. She shouted more spells at him, but not one worked to everyone's horror._

"_It was his to begin with in the first place. He just let you borrow a FRACTION of his magic. You would have kept it if you just married the man, but he knew," the golem said._

"_You knew the whole time?" Hermione asked next to him with tears streaming down her face._

"_Doesn't matter," he said he flexed his hands feeling the magic run its course through him._

"_It does matter!" Ron yelled._

_He __**hated**__ how they were caring about his well being now. That hate fueled him on, releasing something deep within him. _

"_Oh would you look at that over there! A werewolf!" his golem said diverting the attention away from Harry. Sure enough heads turned towards Remus Lupin. He quickly slipped Harry some calming draught and he did calm down as the potion did its effects on his body. He relaxed. _

"_I think most of us already knew that fact," Tonks said glaring. "And who do you think you are? Leave Remus and Harry alone!"_

"_I would like to think I am a potions master teaching all the little pieces of s-darlings at some magical school. Shame though. Unfortunately, I am employed of one such ignorant child whose head is bloated from the fame," the golem said with a scathing sense of humor._

"_Oi!" Harry said._

"_But my young charge here is very stupid. I'll be waiting," he said to Harry. _

"_But who are you? I mean you just show up with him and you two are all close. I've been his friend far longer than you!" Ron said angrily._

"_True as that may be, Mr. Weasley, but I clearly know him and his secrets better than you. Five points from Gryffindor," the golem said._

"_You sound and look just like Sn-"_

"_Come now, Mister Potter, you mustn't keep the dementors waiting," an official said._

"_MY MAGIC! MY MAGIC! IT'S GONE!" Datura kept screaming._

"_A lesson learned, my dear," Harry said in oddly hissing voice. _

"_YOU! YOU DID THIS!" Datura yelled pointing at him._

"_Who else? Good bye now. Keep to the plan, Mr. Snive…," he said as two dementors flanked his side and pulled him away._

'_Snive?' the golem mouthed back amused, but then something registered in his eyes as they grew wide. "Mister Potter, a moment?"_

"_What is it my slimy friend?" Harry asked turning slightly sounding somewhat amused. It was clear that he was fighting off the dementor's power, but it helped to know that the golem had some memories…_

'_Snive' raised his closed fist towards Harry. There was a brief smack of his fist colliding painfully with the wizard's jaw. Before anyone could stop him, 'Snive' disappeared._

_He stumbled then slumped against the cold icy hands gripping him and screams filled his head already driving him insane. He knew the ways of evading the dementors effects, but he couldn't do it in public and his new form preferred heat or else._


	31. Oh My God

Something was wrong. Jack could tell from the pure whiteness emitting off from the room he was at. He sat up and groaned from the pain. He was disorientated from those strange dreams he kept having, but if more came he was going to blame it on the rum which is really unfortunate.

"Mr. Gibbs?" Jack rasped out. His throat felt dry and coarse. The room was spinning and he hadn't even moved a muscle. He tried to swallow down this sense of nausea, "Bugger. I must be dead."

His still kohl-lined eyes surveyed his surroundings. He was in a white room all to himself. It was strange this place. He's never been in a place like this and the stuff looked foreign and strangely seemed to be not of his world. For one the bed was made of some sort of good metal and not of wood or those thin iron beds. The sheets were less coarse than the ones he had slept on at Tortuga. The floor wasn't even covered in straw and dirt. From the smell of things, the air smelt somewhat cleaner, but in an unpleasant sort of way. What unnerved him the most wasn't the fact that he was stark naked saved for the thin sheet acting as some sort of dress covering or that he was slightly hygienic, it was because it was completely white. He preferred the dank, salted brown and barnacled wood.

He was glad to find that he was still in one piece, but his wounds have healed without a mark. He was positive he was going to die, especially after that small brawl with that red head. But here he is, almost as whole as Captain Jack Sparrow can be. Unless he somehow managed to turn back time or maybe he really was dead. No one was around him or checked up on him, if they cared.

Upon further investigation of the room, he found his effects and clothing in a box under his bed. He quickly traded his white gown for his dirty clothes. He finished placing his bandana carefully over his forehead and decided to casually walk out the door as Captain Jack Sparrow could with an air as if he owned the place, wherever and whatever this place is.

To his surprise, he found it actually worked, but was confronted with an entirely new and different world. There were people wearing those strange robes in the strangest of colours and designs. He seemed almost out of place here. He hunched his back a little, pulled his jacket closer to him, kept his unique walk, and made sure that his hat was covering most of his face. There hopefully no one will notice him with all this mayhem happening.

"So I've very pleased to let you know that you two are not carrying anything that would threaten the future, but we will need you to take half a goblet full of this potion once a night for seven days," an elderly man in a white robe told the young couple.

"What's it for?" Elizabeth asked taking three of the potion bottles and eyed them cautiously.

"Since you are a few centuries behind, there are some immunities, resistances if you will, that people in your day did not have. This is to prevent either of you from becoming sick or dead. Good day, I must check on how Mr. Potter is doing."

"How is _Jack_ doing?" Will asked still apt in thinking that these people have the wrong man.

"Potter-Sparrow? He is supposed to be resting now. We've got him stabilized and treated most of the diseases and lice he had. We couldn't heal the wound on his right cheek and we're not sure if he is suffering from several diseases from this century or yours. Though we did have a problem cleaning him with the cleaning spell. It's strange really. You say he's been without any medical treatment for weeks now?" the doctor asked.

"Yes. That is what he and Mister Gibbs said," Will said. He was a little confused as to why the doctor is bringing that up. Sure, Jack should have died, but it looks like the old pirate still has a few tricks up his sleeve.

"Marvelous," the doctor said in an afterthought to Will's answer. "Bullet wounds such as his would have killed a man within minutes. But how he managed to live that long with an uninfected gunshot wound to the stomach and was fully functional, is just…simply a medical mystery."

"I'm sure…it is," Will said giving the wizard doctor an odd look. Will started to steer Elizabeth away from the doctor treating Jack.

"Before I forget…" the doctor called out to them. "Miss Swann, we were highly concerned for the wellbeing of your status in being pregnant –"

"Pregnant?" Will echoed his voice high and tight. He had disbelief coursing through him. He looked between Elizabeth and the wizard doctor. "Pregnant?"

"- But that potion will work fine with your child. Should do more help than harm. So congratulations."

"You're pregnant?" Will asked in disbelief. His eyes looked everywhere but her and hesitantly asked, "Are you sure?"

"Yes, Will. You're going to be a father. That is what I was going to tell you the other day, well centuries…"

Will swallowed hard and thought. He was stuck in the future and now he was starting a family in an unknown world. There were things here that he had never imagined or heard of back home and he never thought of being so immersed in magic if it weren't for a certain pirate captain. But here he was acting irrational and he was probably scaring the love of his life.

"Will?" Elizabeth asked tentatively. She had noticed that her still fiancée was lost deep in thought by the way he just stared intently at the strange floor.

'_You've done it Will. You're going to scare Elizabeth off. She's probably thinking you don't want the baby_,' Will thought to himself. He looked up and grinned, "This is great news! We should tell –"

Elizabeth noticed Will stop. She hugged him close to her to reassure him that she was still there. "It's okay. We have each other, like Mary and Joseph. I won't ever leave you Will."

Will hugged her back, but he was much gentler than usual fearing that he might harm her and the baby. That made Elizabeth hold onto him more tightly.

"HE'S GONE! Alert the security! The Aurors! Someone!" the doctor yelled coming out of Jack's hospital room.

Jack wandered threaded through the people and endless hallways. He was almost tempted to just bolt out, but that would draw attention to him. He grabbed one of the white robes hanging on a chair and quickly threw it over himself. He swiped his hat off his head and tried to look halfway decent.

"Oi! Where be the exit?" he asked a young man passing by.

"Did you get hit over your head or something, Doc? Just go down two flights and you're out of here. Mind the imps and doxies though. Someone named Lockhart accidentally stumbled through and the whole crate full of 'em escaped. In case you're still confounded, I wouldn't use the elevators if I were you. Some managed to get around it and started kicking the sides, making it rock dangerously. Stairs are that away," the young man finally paused to point to the direction he just came from and took a good look at the _doctor._ "Aren't you –"

"About to get mauled by that said creature?" Jack said quickly and ducked.

The young man saw Jack and naturally ducked. Jack ran past him and opened the door towards the stairs before the young man noticed that Jack tricked him.

Jack grinned to himself feeling the rush of running again. Freedom was within his grasp and it was so easy! He noticed some weird creatures and assumed that they were the imps and doxies. He would not want to mess with them from the havoc they were creating. He ran past the screaming people and the laughing creatures and ran one more flight of stairs. Jack busted through the doors and some people had half mind to turn his way and look. The room was large and there were people everywhere. There was a plump, blonde haired woman at a desk not to far from him that read "Reception". Before he could run off again, someone yelled.

"Doctor!"

Jack mentally groaned. He forgot to ditch the robe. "What can I be doin' for ye missy?"

"This man," a young timid medi-nurse pointed at the man in the chair not too far from them. He looked awfully terrible and Jack tried to hide the grimace. "What sort of animal bite would you say that is?"

"I'd have to say he has the scurvy. Now go tend!" Jack said merrily and gave her a slight push before running off. She wasn't expecting that and was quite surprised as she stumbled over.

Jack had ran through the doors and emerged from the now dirty looking, red bricked building. He did a double take. Apparently they don't clean the outside as well as they thought…

Jack took in the strange surroundings and noticed that he was far away from home. The air had a sort of dirty feel to it and everything was harder from the strange ground to the buildings that reached to the heavens. He shook his head and threw away the white robe.

Once again, his eyes surveyed the landscape. It was very…strange. He admired the tall buildings as he walked, but he felt a sudden depression hit him by the graying clouds. He wasn't watching where he was going and he was almost struck by this metal moving rectangle and the strangest, annoying sound came from it when he came in front of its path. It sounded nothing like cannon fire.

"Oi! Get out of me bloody way!" There was a person inside it! An angry person…

Jack stumbled backwards where he backed way quickly until he felt something solid behind him and grew alarmed as another annoying sound came from another one of those metal carriages. He ran a hand against the cold metal and found a handle. Was it to open it? Curious, Jack tried to open the door connected to the handle, but once again, a different sound issued from the car at a much louder interval from the previous.

"You there! What do you think you're doing? It's a crime to carjack!" an oddly dressed official came towards him.

Jack backed away from the line of cars and the imposing official. He did not want to get arrested so soon after escaping.

"I was just admiring this ship…thing," Jack said still backing away. He noticed that a small crowd was forming and it he had to, he would run towards them and hope to loose the official from there.

"Hold it right there. Don't move or I will shoot," the official said bringing out a strange pistol. This one was much more bulky, but shiny that the one strapped to Jack's waist.

"Wait!" an unfamiliar feminine French accent voice called out. Jack looked towards where the voice had came from and saw a particular beautiful slender lady with her brown-blonde hair held on top of her head. There was a strange dark bifocal on her head as well.

"Step away, miss," the official said.

"_Non!_ He iz my friend!" She said boldly stepping in between the pirate and the official.

Jack took his time smelling the flower fragrant in her hair and all the skin she showed. He grinned like a cat who had just caught a mouse. "I don't think we have met before."

"We have not," she whispered while looking straight ahead.

"Miss…This man, your "friend", had tried to carjack that here car."

"C'est a mistake. My car looks identical to that," she lied.

"Hmm?" Jack hummed as he breathed in her clean scent. She was obviously wealthy enough to bathe more frequently than anyone else he has ever met.

"Why don't you tell that to the judge?" the official said.

The official started to walk slowly towards them, but as soon as the he lowered his weapon, Jack quickly grabbed the woman's wrist and pulled her forward with him.

"Run," was all Jack said as a warning before he started to half drag her surprised that he was even bringing her with him.

They ran as fast as they could past the civilians and Jack forcibly pushed the official aside and yelled out an apology before they rounded the corner and the official disappeared from view.

They didn't stop running until she jerked her hand away from him.

"Something the matter, love?" Jack heaved heavily. It felt good to run after such a long time in confinement on the ship and Port Royal though he did feel a little dizzy just standing there.

"You're out of shape," she said between breaths.

"Not the only one," Jack said and straightened himself. "I don't think I've had the pleasure of knowing your name, love."

"Vanessa," was all she said. Her eyes darted back and forth.

"Vanessa of?" Jack supplied and slowly inched his way back towards her side.

"Vanessa of France? I do not know what it is you want me to say, Mister?" He noted that her accent became more pronounced when she was frustrated.

"Sparrow. Captain Jack Sparrow," Jack said and waited for her reaction.

"Well, Captain, it is a very strange encounter. I 'ave no doubt that the press will get wind of this," Vanessa said sighing heavily and pressed a hand to her forehead.

"The Press?" Jack asked inquisitively and looked at her curiously. Were they some sort of pirate gang or countrymen?

"_Oui…_Yes," was all she said. "I don't feel like explaining now. So Captain, why are you so far away from your ship?"

"I'm not sure why either, to be perfectible honest with you. Being chased by those redheads is no fun. Neither is almost dying…again and again."

"I 'ave always thought it would be interesting to meet a pirate," she says smiling. "I did not think that all of them would ve wearing eye patches, 'ave gold teeth, or have a parrot."

Jack grinned at her, showing her the gold caps in his teeth. "Aye, but not all pirates are like me, love. Though I did befriend a monkey at one point. He is…was very good at cards and taking –"

"Aztec gold?" Vanessa finished.

Jack eyed her carefully. He didn't think that many people believed his story back on Tortuga when he had more than enough to drink. "Aye. Do I know you?"

"No, but everyone knows the story of 'Captain Jack Sparrow'. As a street performer, you pulled the act nicely though I don't know what you were doing with that car there."

"How does everyone know Captain Jack Sparrow?" Jack asked confused. He let the idea of him being a 'street performer' run through her head for now.

"I am very familiar with "The Captain Logs of Captain Jack Sparrow" which his quartermaster, Joss Gibbs found in honor of his captain who so disappeared from Port Royal.

Jack is somewhat enraged and confused. Gibbs knows better than to go through his personal belongings, especially the, "Captain Logs?"

"That's what their titled "The Captain Logs". It is categorized as fiction though for the past two or three hundred years. It seemed that this Sparrow, sorry you, have been through a lot. It is very much like the Harry Potter series that's written by a woman named Rowlings and co-written by "Harry Potter" himself. Here they still sell the book after all these years! Do you want to see?" Vanessa explains.

"I would –" Jack noticed the small metal ships and strange lights emitting from the top. He grimaced from the sound. "-but it is time to leave, love."

"Come. I know where we can go. I doubt you know where you are going. But first we must get you new clothes," Vanessa said uncertainly eyeing the dark rusted stains that encrusted his shirt and vest. This time it was her who dragged him after her.


	32. Mummer's Dance

"Where the bloody hell can he be?" a very frustrated Ron Weasley asked the question that was all on their minds.

It has been less than two hours and seventeen minutes since Jack woke up and disappeared. No one in the hospital remembers seeing the strangely dressed pirate, otherwise nude pirate, leave. It was Elizabeth who first noticed that none of Jack Sparrow's clothing was there. All that was left that there ever was an indication of Captain Jack Sparrow or Harry Potter is the paper thin hospital gown, a musky smell of sea salt with a trace of heavy rum, a faint dirt smudge on the bed sheets, and a small lock of brown hair braided with a small silver bell attached.

"What is it?" Will asks looking over her shoulder.

Elizabeth throws it down before picking it up again and pocketing it again. "Must be one a token a woman left him."

"You seem mad, Elizabeth," Hermione said to the younger, but technically older, woman.

"I'm not mad," Elizabeth says. "Just wondering where Jack went. From your descriptions it sounds like a very dangerous place with all those metal khaarz…ships right here on the streets compared to Port Royal, but almost not so to Tortuga."

"Have you been to Tortuga?" Will and Hermione asked them.

Ron and Elizabeth gave each other a knowing glance from a time when they both were looking for Jack to find the other.

"Desperate times," Will says nodding to himself.

"Yes," Elizabeth answered.

"That's it?" Ron asked incredulously. "I mean come on! Where is the story to that? You guys are boring."

"Sir, you have asked us if we have been to Tortuga and to which we have replied to your question. Now I am getting quite fed up with your childish behavior. For all that is good, even Jack seems more mature than you! Now we have questions and it is obvious from you two that we are not getting any answers," Elizabeth said walking the distance between them and jabbing her finger repeatedly on his chest angrily.

"Ow! That hurts," Ron said rubbing the sore spot.

"Please, both of you calm down," Hermione said. "You want answers to your questions? I can only say that we all have questions and the only one that can answer it is Harry, himself. Now we cannot just be standing here yelling at each other all day."

"Yeah, if Jack is out there and he's hurt again, I'm going to find him," Will said determined. Even though Jack is a shady character, the pirate has or tried to help them in his own way that serves him.

"Well where should we start then?" Ron asked frustrated.

"How about we start in a place where it's not his hospital room? It'd be easier have his crew and my crew search for him, but you two just took us without thinking of the consequences," Elizabeth said.

"Your crew?" Ron asked bewildered and a look of suspicion crossing his face.

"Why don't we go outside now before Jack might do something stupid?" Will suggested.

"Yes," Elizabeth agreed with a small nod.

"Okay. It'd be easier if we spilt up. So Ron you go with Will and I will go with Elizabeth. Is that okay with everyone?" Hermione said.

"But why do I have to go with him?" Ron whined. "Make the kids go."

"I don't think our kids, his, or anyone's would be able to…tame what Harry has become now. Plus, you and I are accustomed to this era, they are not. Just as they are accustomed to this insane Harry. Okay? No complaints? Let's go," Hermione said taking the lead.

"And then, you see, they had traded the whelp over me. So while they're all reunited, monkey takes my piece of eight though you could say it just happened to drop out of my hand at that moment."

"Oh no! That is terrible!" Vanessa gasped out from her seat.

"Aye, but not the worse part. You see –"

"Jack Sparrow!"

"Elizabeth? Elizabeth! How good to see you…again. See? I actually like to see you because I missed you, but then again you did kill me, two times were it? You see, I was talking with my new friend…"

"Vanessa," Vanessa supplied. She looked at the two newcomers with a frown.

"Aye. And we were both having a wonderful time. I had a suspicion that you were going to be the one to find me, but not too soon. So if you wouldn't mind leaving with your bushy, mean friend, I would most appreciate it," Jack said trying to be nice and coherent.

"No," the two female companions said at the same time.

"No?" Jack repeated.

"No," Elizabeth said sternly.

"I would have thought the pirate ways would have told ye different, love. Or is it that your duties as Governor more important that the duties to yer crew?"

"My crew isn't here and neither is yours, Jack. So we should be heading back now," Elizabeth said rather coldly. She couldn't lie to herself though and Jack is right, for once. She did miss her crew and even the waves of the ocean had become soothing to her.

"Perhaps I should be leaving?" Vanessa said. She started to gather her belongings.

"No," Jack said and was about to reach out and grab her wrist, but thought otherwise. "Stay, love. Don't let these two scallywags frighten you off."

"I'm really sorry, Captain Sparrow, but I must leave. My children are waiting –"

"Chi-children?" Jack stuttered.

"Oui. Deux, two. Perhaps if I see you again, I might introduce you to them. Where will you be staying then?"

"Staying? Well since this is all a dream, I will be staying in my cabin," Jack said confidently. He looked around and ducked his head as if searching for someone. "Ah. He's not here," Jack muttered.

"Okay," Vanessa said slowly. She started to scribble something in a book and ripped it out. She handed it to Jack. "My contact information. Should you need it? Please don't give it to anyone else. I'm not sure why I am even giving a total stranger this."

"You can trust me there, love," Jack said with a stunning smiling.

"Au revoir. Adieu," Vanessa said and started to walked away.

"Aye. I'll be waiting," Jack said and sat firmly in his seat. But he grabbed her elbow. He quickly whispered, "Don't let me go with them."

"Harry, we have to go now," Hermione said looking around.

"What?" Vanessa whispered back to him.

Jack pulled her close and leaned in to say, "If this isn't a dream, which I am starting to think it is not, then I don't want to stay here. This is a fate worse than being on the Pearl while the Kraken is upon us because at least then I had freedom. In Tortuga, go there and find me first mate – Gibbs, I forgot his first name. He's a drunkard and smells terrible."

"But he's dead. Read ze book. It was written centuries ago. But you can't be? Are you really –"

"You've found him! Good job Hermione," Ron said with great enthusiasm.

"Hermione? Granger? Then you must be her cohort or husband, Ronald Weasley?" Vanessa guessed and momentarily forgetting about the pirate holding her.

"Cripes! Damn those _fictional_ novels on his life. Um…No, sorry you're mistaken. We're here for the convention," Hermione said thinking fast.

"No. We're not!" Jack said shaking his head fast. He didn't want to get captured here with those better pistols and stricter regiments that they've enforced here, if this was all not a dream.

"Yes, we are," Ron said and grabbed Jack's elbow. Unfortunately, Jack was still holding onto Vanessa's elbow and that made her collide towards Jack and the table. "Let go!"

"Chump, you let go and then we're all savvy, eh?" Jack said.

"Help him Will," Hermione said nudging the younger man towards them.

"I don't want to intrude…"

"Will, remembered who helped you get your lovely lass back? Who was there to lead you the way? Who was the one who helped you help her? Not Red over here? Who took all of us away from your official wedding?" Jack said trying to use Will against his captors. His brown eyes pleaded with the younger man.

"I-" Will started.

"Jack," Vanessa whispered softly in his ear.

"Mmhm?" Jack pried his eyes off of Will's and took in the site of the younger woman.

"I don't know how to say this, but I will see you again," Vanessa said.

"What?" Jack managed to say before his mouth was covered with hers.

Before he realized what had happened, Ron and Will dragged Jack and his bags away.

"Thanks," Ron said cheerfully.

"Non," Vanessa said with a scowl.

"Not again," Jack mumbled to himself, deflated.

The two woman followed them around the corner. Just as Vanessa lost sight of them, there was a small "pop" sound and it was quiet.

"Could he be telling ze truth?"


	33. Under Pressure

"You're a – you're a bloody _pirate_!" Ron screamed.

"Argh! You're a-." Jack jumped back a few feet and paused. "Just bear with me fer a moment thar, mate. What are you exactly? And I'm not bloody."

"I'm, I'm an official from the Ministry of Magic," Ron stammered. Upon Jack's confused look, he said simply, "Wizard."

"Oh right." Jack nodded and returned to his frightened stance. Jack yelled out while he dramatically waved his arms around, "Argh! You're a wizard!"

"But you're a pirate!"

"Let's just say that if I were a wizard, it doesn't mean I won't ever resort to blackmail. Savvy?"

"Savvy?"

"Aye, savvy there, mate. There be no need fer ye to be repeating every word I say," Jack lectured.

"You're a myth, a legend, and an icon before; you're a myth, a legend, and an icon now. It never ends!"

"Sorry, mate. But apparently no one has ever forgotten that I am Captain Jack Sparrow," he said putting emphasis on his name.

"I don't bloody well care! You could have just laid low for once?" Ron said frustrated and clearly angry.

There was a knock at the door and almost everyone in the room jumped.

"Yes?"

"Who goes there?" Jack questioned when he was right in front of the door.

"Your doctor."

"Bugger that," Jack mumbled, but opened the door regardless.

"Um…Could I have a word with him? Alone?"

"Sure, but I don't see why –" Hermione said.

"It's not really in my power to stop Mr. Potter, if he wants you here," his doctor said.

"Really?" Jack perked up as he was about to correct his name. A smirk gently lifted his features. "Well off you four, five, go now. We will be discussing negotiations here. So buy a new hat or something," he said as he pushed them out of the room and shut the door behind them.

"I think it might be best if you took a seat, Mr. Potter," his doctor said slowly.

"What could the doctor be saying to him for the past thirty-four minutes?" Will asked from his seat on the bench across from Jack's room.

"If only Fred and George were here, they'd lend us some of their Extreme Extendable Ears or even an Extendable Ear," Ron said frustrated.

"What?" Elizabeth and Will asked, clearly confused.

"It's a listening device created by Ronald's twin older brothers. They look like ordinary string, but they're enchanted. Quite useful if you're the one using them and not the one being spied upon," Hermione explained.

"Oh," was all Elizabeth could say.

The door to Jack's room opened and both men walked out.

"You understand what that means, Mr. Potter?" his doctor asked Jack.

"Yes," Jack said. He looked a little pale compared to his normal Caribbean glow. "Really? Now that sure puts a – What are they doing out here?"

"Don't worry. What was said in that room, it is between you and me. No one else will know unless you tell them," his doctor said. "Make sure to come back and check up."

His doctor whispered, "As we discussed, I'll just owl you the medication. It's in the form of a pill, but it should go undetected. Remember it does not cure, just suppresses."

"What is it, Jack?" Will asked jumping to his feet.

"Ah, nothing. Perfect health and the many reasons of not being pissed off at the lot of you, otherwise he said I can go," Jack said smilingly almost too widely. He shared a look with his doctor that the rest of the group almost didn't notice. "Come, let's go back to the Pearl and I can show you this wonderful island. Turtles, crabs, rum, women, and gold."

"You haven't told him?" his doctor asked Ron and Hermione.

"We thought that he would have figured it out himself," Ron said sheepishly.

"Tell me what?"

"Mr. Potter, you're stuck here, in the future, the proper time you're suppose to be here," his doctor said.

"What?" Jack said slowly and started to sway back towards the room.

"You're never going back to the past again," Ron said though he sounded far away.

"Mind speaking up? I can't really hear you well," Jack said faintly and swallowed. He stumbled back into the room.

"Mr. Potter, are you feeling well?" his doctor asked him.

His mouth suddenly felt dry. "I think I might need some rum," Jack said.

Everything was spinning out of control and he felt he couldn't find the floor as he stumbled backwards. He lost his footing and fell backwards. His vision turned dark before he felt the sharp crack of pain emit from his head.

"Just fantastic," Ron spat out. "You two aren't going to cause a scene are you?"

"Us? No," Will said.

"We're use to being on land and strange things. Jack is just use to strange things in the water. I think we'll cope as long as we're together," Elizabeth said.

"Perhaps we should take him back to Hogwarts?" Hermione suggested to the doctor. "It might help jog his memory or something being around familiar places, right?"

"Mrs. Weasley, it might help, but there is also a chance of it not working. There is something more at work here than what is apparent. Would you mind waiting outside again as we tend to him?"

"Sure thing."

"Maybe that fall to his head helped more than did even more damage," Ron said trying to be funny once they reached the Hospital Wing at Hogwarts.

Will looked at Ron and voiced what was plaguing him, "What is it that you have against Jack?"

"Me? I don't have anything against him," Ron said defensively.

"You seem like you do," Elizabeth said rounding up on him also.

"Fine. Ever since he killed that insane wizard, You-Know-Who, Vo-Voldemort, he's been acting strange," Ron said.

"Why don't we start at the beginning?" Hermione recommended. She led them outside the Hospital Wing and into one of the vacant classrooms. "Back then we were 17. Harry was determined to destroy Voldemort and his Horcruxes then. Horcruxes are these magical items that can be created by killing someone and storing a small part of your soul in that item. It was a way to temporarily become immortal. Harry was told by Albus Dumbledore, our mentor and headmaster at the time that Voldemort created six or seven Horcruxes. He and Dumbledore already destroyed two then and when Dumbledore died, he went searching for the remaining Horcruxes and we came along."

"So one night, we decided to let loose a little and relax from all the battles and wars going on. Well it was just Ronald and I that did the relaxing, Harry was too engrossed in finding the last Horcrux that he just did not take notice of what we were doing. That night is still a blur to me because the next morning, we're in a strange room, Harry is gone, and he left a note."

"There were search parties looking for him for three weeks, but we could not find him anywhere. The battles stopped and many people died. People like Charlie and Percy Weasley, Ron's older brothers. We also lost our friend, Rubeus Hagrid, a classmate and one of Harry's school rivals, Draco Malfoy, our ex-Potions professor, Severus Snape, and the man who betrayed Harry's parents back when Harry was just a baby, Wormtail, also known as Peter Pettigrew. There were countless others, but I doubt you would want to hear them all right now."

"So two weeks later, he was found with the corpse of Voldemort. By then Harry just looked different despite the fact that he was covered in welts, blood, dirt, bruises, and who knows what else. He had a beard and his hair was long. Remus, a friend of Harry's parents, found him and thought that he was Sirius Black, Harry's godfather and also a friend of his fathers'. Until they cleaned him up. Harry claimed that he was there for five years instead of five weeks, which would have made him at least 22 years old, but that's just not possible."

Hermione sighed. "Still with me?"

"Yes."

"People celebrated the death of Voldemort and Harry's victory over him while their hero recuperated here in the school's Hospital Wing. Well school, Hogwarts, was still in session, so once Harry recovered he joined us for classes. Despite not keeping up with his studies for months, he was good. And if you know Harry as well as we used to, he was never that good in classes and never that quiet. He even knew spells that were far beyond his years. He did excellent in potions and we weren't sure if it was because Snape, one of the most disliked professors in our time, was dead or what. Something was up and we were determined to find out. But Harry had withdrawn into himself again. Everyone was nice about it and him, thinking that he was still in shock, needed his space, or something. He didn't let anyone know how he was feeling. It was as if he was always somewhere else. Sometimes, he would yell out even though no one was near him or talking to him. At the end of the school year, Harry skipped out on graduation and he wasn't able to graduate with us at all. His excuse was that he had to visit his parents grave and that it didn't matter if he graduated or not."

"Something was up. Over the summer, Harry was allowed to stay with Ron's family while he tried to get back on his feet and find his own place. But one day, there was something about Harry that Ron felt uncomfortable about."

"At night, he'd stay up and just start pacing around. Sometimes he'd mutter to himself. I don't know about you but I wouldn't want to stay in the same room as a nutter. He reminded me of Kreacher, but not really," Ron explained.

"Anyways, the Weasleys' gently told Harry that he should stay elsewhere. We're not sure where he went then, but we later found out it was at his aunt's for a few days. Something must have been wrong if he went back to the only relatives that treated him like a slave. Well he left and I guess that was about the time that he had that mansion built. It wasn't too far from London, but it wasn't in the countryside either. People would see him at pubs and clubs, chain smoking with a pint that was never touched. He would just be sitting there smoking and looking through the newspaper. Sometimes he would be accompanied by a man who looked to be in his early thirties. He'd have short greasy black hair and shallow skin with a drawl to his voice. We thought it was Snape, but the man died during the war and he had no other family. However, we did see that same man described at the trial, I'll get to that in the minute."

"So he builds this mansion. Outside it's all nice and fancy, and very lonely looking. You'll see it later when Harry has calmed down a little. Inside, the main and top floors are his, while the basement was used as some sort of club for younger people to party and have a good time. We think that was around the time that he met his future fiancée, Datura Stramonium Lactucarium, which he nicknamed her to 'Jessie' for who knows why. Apparently, they hit it off and he spoiled her, as in buying and letting her get whatever she wanted."

"We never did think it was going to work out. At the time, Harry was just a sick love fool and in a way, chained to her. I don't remember if it was obvious or not, but it was almost completely one-sided. He was oblivious to anything else but her. But it made him happy and even though their relationship bothered us, we decided to let this slide and see how it would end."

"That November, which was I believe four months after the Weasleys' made Harry leave, they were engaged and were going to have a wedding. Of course, we thought it was all a joke you see. "How could he open up to a total stranger than to his closest friends?" Ron's younger sister, Ginny, asked us. I think she still had feelings for him back then. There were only a few people that attended even though they must have sent out hundreds. It was somewhat public, but still private. He let in a few reporters and strangers in, but other than them there weren't that many. According to Rita Skeeter, I guess you can call her Harry's publicist to a certain degree, her article mentioned that Harry's aunt, Remus Lupin, that strange man, Headmistress McGonagall, the Prime Minister of Magic, Oliver Wood, and a few of our classmates were there was there on Harry's side. We're not exactly sure who showed up on the wife-to-be's side."

"So they take their vows and just as they were going to finalize the ceremony, something happened. According to the paper and those that were there, Datura insulted Harry, but he was not at all fazed by it, in fact, some say that it looked like he knew it was going to happen. He didn't flinch as she shoved him towards the glass window. The witches and wizards there were too slow to react to help him before he reached the ground. Now they were a few stories high, so this was not at all pleasant and neither were the classified photographs. Normally, people would die, not from the fall but from the rock hard ground and the many shards of glass piercing him, but Harry was far from normal. He was still conscious as the muggle-non-magical people, and the ambulance reached him. From the looks of it back then, he looked simply like a broken doll. One of his eyes had a three inch shard protruding from it, blood was everywhere, there were more shards piercing him, and most likely a concussion and serious brain damage."

"He gets whisked away to the muggle hospital and no one was allowed to see him. He was probably in the hospital for a day before we find out that he has disappeared. For a month, we heard no word from him. It was as if he no longer existed."

"Then, one day someone suggested we go to his mansion. We go, the door is wide open, and he's there. He still looked like he was at the losing side of the fight against a gang, but he was still mobile. He was bandaged in several places and was constantly taking these pills. There was also an obvious limp in his step, but he wasn't using a cane at the time. He smoked during the whole time as if we weren't there. It was obvious that there was some brain damage still because he'd either be quiet, rambling on about something, or he would mutter something that "It's not right." It was like being with a mentally insane person, which made him unpredictable and frightening. At the time, he wasn't accompanied by that strange man. In fact, the times we did visit him, he was alone and the house seemed to express how the owner was feeling and hiding within himself. Even the house…savants felt that way. This Harry was so much different than the little boy we found on the train and grew up with."

"After a month since the accident, he decides to go take a vacation in the Caribbean's even though he still looked very fragile. He didn't ask us to come along or even tell us. A week later, he's back and the house was filled with model ships, castles, and diagrams and whatnot. But then, a month after that, the trial happens."

"The trial?"

"Yes. It was termed "The People vs. Datura Stramonium Lactucarium" since Harry did not acknowledge what was going on around him. We took it on our account to protect him. It was as if he was in his own little world that no one else knew about. But somehow that stranger got word of it and dragged Harry along. He was more social to that stranger than to the people he probably once considered family. He cut his hair really short and it looked like he did it himself with rusty scissors, but we found out later that it was the style in the muggle world. Harry looked very tired and worn out. So during most of the trial, he slept on that man's shoulder, which was very rude and weird. He even smoked during the session when he and Datura were having a small quarrel. Even though we were a few rows behind them, we heard Harry say to the man that he already knew the outcome. Now Harry is not someone who can just see into the future or claim to be one like that fraud –"

"She means our old batty Divination professor," Ron interjected.

"Yes, her. And we're pretty sure that he did not use a Time Turner, like how he managed to go centuries beyond our own and ended up in your era. Well she was sent free and Harry imprisoned for three weeks under house arrest before he was sent to prison."

"Well that's not too bad."

"Wait, there's more," Hermione said. She took a small break before continuing. "There were dementors placed at every door leading outside and in all over his mansion. Dementors are these…creatures that can suck out your soul if you're too close. Otherwise, they stalk around and feed on all your positive emotions and memories. They leave you facing your worst memory, for Harry back in our third year, which would have made us 13 years old; it was the night his parents were murdered."

"That's horrible," Elizabeth said.

"Yes, but to the dementors, he was like honey to bees. They always seemed to be following wherever he went, which caused problems, especially when he was in the air on his broomstick. I think they were somehow employed by Voldemort in the past and were still following orders. So back to the story, it was just terrible for Harry to be even within ten feet of one, but he couldn't prevent it."

"Not to mention that corrupted judge made Harry give that sleazy lover of his 63 of his inheritance, which left him almost broke, and he almost had to give the mansion away but she didn't want it. She just wanted the money. Anyways, to this day, the name Harry Potter is still going around. Someone let it slip that he wrote memoirs of his time at Hogwarts and the money just keeps pooling in," Ron said. "Untouched."

"It may have been best if there wasn't a trial in the first place."

"Sometimes we tried to visit him, but we couldn't stand being there with all those dementors around. How he managed to survive, we don't know. Though a few times, we could hear him screaming and then nothing. It was just him and the dementors the whole time. We think he endured all that suffering because he felt like he deserved it, which he didn't. Not at all. He was, is, too good of a person to even be thought ill of. That was the last time we saw him."

"After his time was up, he allowed only one person for an exclusive interview; Rita Skeeter. It was his farewell to us. The picture of him on the cover depicted him as extremely pale, his eyes were glassy, always smoking, a stubble, his hair came down in waves and curls just as it was growing out, we thought his hair was straight, anyways there were bruises on the visible parts of him. I think he may have gotten that from passing out and accidentally hitting himself."

"So he gives her this exclusive. She questions him and he answers it willingly. I'll show you the paper later. It explained what happened between his capture and the death of Voldemort. Somehow he deluded us somehow. If you read his responses, it seems like there is more going on, as if he is hinting or talking to us in code. It was this and his memoirs that made us initially go look for him after he disappeared."

"He wrote six books about his life at Hogwarts and his summers at his relatives. It was written in a way that the reader was in third person, as if they're on the outside watching in. Anyways, not only does he release it in the wizarding world, he does it also in the muggle world. Here it's labeled as non-fiction, whereas in them muggle world it is branded as children's fiction. Despite that, it became huge hits between the two worlds. It was a cult phenomenon. He was seriously making more money, but Harry wasn't there so it just went to his bank account."

"Yeah before the guy was wealthy, now he could probably live a few lives and still not use a fraction of it," Ron said crossly.

"He wrote about the six years he was in Hogwarts. Six books for six years. The seventh book is not there! We have to know what happened exactly and afterwards. Something went on between Harry and Voldemort. Harry isn't a dark wizard, but he isn't the smartest one either. Rather I think that he made a deal with the devil, Voldemort."

"Which is why we spent almost a quarter of our lives searching for him. For 18 years, he was gone. We searched and researched everything, for a clue, something, anything. Just a couple of months ago, we almost gave up. After investigating through his stuff at his mansion, we found out about the books on ships and survival. It never occurred to us that he would have resorted to traveling backwards in time or that he took on the identity of Jack Sparrow."

"But Jack claims that he doesn't remember and that doctor said something that he experienced some sort of head trauma years ago," Will said still trying to process it all.

"Yes, but from what we've read, has this Jack Sparrow ever been one to tell the truth?" Hermione said smiling.

"He does have his moments," Will countered.

"But he somehow manages to twist it around," Elizabeth added.

"Well we found a way to manipulate a time turner. You see a time turner could only move backwards in time, but this one was able to come back to the present or future. It was a set of one design we found in Harry's mansion. Strange…"

"What's strange?"

"I just thought of something. It is a bit strange how he was able to do all that work even though he never went to secondary school. Anyways that's a brief update on where we stand right now."

"A 'brief update'? Blimey, Hermione. You might as well have shown them the picture book," Ron complained.

"Honestly, Ron. They needed to know the whole story, even if Harry doesn't," Hermione said gently.

Jack stepped away from the doorway and winced when the door slightly closed in.

"What was that?"

"Don't worry. The castle does that sometimes."

"Creepy, old castle full of ghosts," Ron said.

"Ron, you don't have to scare them."

"Well they're going to find out sooner or later."

Jack slowly inched away from the two couples – one from the past and one from the future or present- and made his way back towards where he thought was the hospital wing.

"_Why don't I remember this stuff if I am this Harry?" _Jack thought to himself.

"_Maybe you're not Harry,"_ a slithery voice answered.

Jack turned around and looked everywhere. When he found no one he thought, "_You're positively right. I am Jack Sparrow, son of Captain Teague, Keeper of the Code. Grew up in India with him and the mother and brother who disowned us. Mum is now a shrunken head and Papa now carries her around, rather did carry her around. Wait a minute-I must have knocked my head harder than I thought."_

"_Probably. Are you sure I haven't always been here? Inside your head?"_ the slithery voice asked.

"_I think I would have remembered another voice in my own head, mate."_

"_Would you? All those times you escaped? Ways of influencing the simple minded? How you survived on your own after all these years?"_

"_Jack it's not like you," a version of Jack Sparrow without his coat appeared._

"_What do you mean? Who are you?" Jack was referencing to the voice._

"_Aye," another Jack seemed to materialize from the very walls. "Wait…No one move."_

"_What?" original Jack asked and went in a circle._

"_Bloody hell. I ask for one moment with him and you two show up," the slithering voice cursed._

"_What if you pretend to be this Harry Potter…"_

"_They did say he was rich," original Jack muttered._

"_Still is mate," the third Jack said._

"_But the Magic."_

"_Can be put and manipulated into the care of idle hands," the voice said pervasively._

"_But Will…the Dutchman. The Dutchman will always need a captain,"_

"_Immortality," the second Jack said as he searched for something in Jack's dreads._

"_Ah, now that I like the sound of," Original Jack said. _

"_Elizabeth a widow…"_

"_Technically, they were married by Barbossa. I don't recall him being a Captain at the time nor having a ship." _

"_Shut it!" the voice said. _

"_What we interrupting you?" all three Jacks asked._

"_So many questions, Sparrow. Maybe someday they'll be answered. Until then you'll just have to be kept in the dark...like I have for the past years."_

Just like that the voice was gone. It felt more like his vision has gotten sharper and everything came in focus.

"That was weird," Jack said out loud. He waited for a response and found none. They were gone.

He nearly yelped out loud when he caught his reflection in the mirror. He cracked his jaw and dismissed what just happened with the voice but went over what his other selves were saying.


	34. Walking With a Ghost

_Thanks so much for all the reviews and your continued support :). Hope everyone had a favorable holiday._

"I'm sorry, but none of this is ringing a bell. I don't even hear a little chime. Now if you would excuse me, I need to find a way back to Port Royal," Jack said pushing himself off the hospital bed.

The two people who were suppose to be Harry Potter's friends were telling Jack for the past hour of the stories they had supposedly shared as youngsters.

"You don't even remember the hospital ward? You've nearly spent most of your time here than anywhere else," Hermione said.

"Why was that?" Jack grumbled. He was starting to get irritated.

On any other day, he would love to hear fanciful stories of youths regaling themselves in their spare time, but without a drop of alcohol in his system, he can't seem to function as properly as Jack Sparrow should.

"Quidditch."

"Pour quoi?" Jack asked in French. Almost immediately, his thoughts turned back to young Vanessa. "Now would any of you know where did those bags go before I was magically transported to that other place against my will?"

"You mean the books and clothes?" Hermione asked in confirmation. "We put those in your mansion. We talked to the headmistress before we left and she has agreed to help you with regaining your memories. So for the summer, you'll be spending it at your old mansion and for the remainder of the year will be spent here. A previous headmaster thought it would be best if you had a dormitory in your previous House. We can go to your mansion now if you want?"

"Sure. Why not," Jack said and stopped himself from rolling his eyes. He managed to grin at her.

"Now we won't be able to get there through fireplace since Harry never opened him or told us the name. We can't fly on broomstick because you guys don't know how to fly. So we'll just have to apparate there." She led the group down towards the grand staircase.

"Appa-what?"

"Apparate. Think of it like going to one place to another," Hermione said.

"Like how we just went from the hallway to the staircase?" Jack said trying to lighten the mood.

"If you want to think of it like that," was all the witch said. "We're going to have to go through one of the villages to get pass the shield. Unfortunately, with Harry here we won't be able to spend much time in the village."

"Well we'll just have to thank Harry, aye?" Jack muttered.

"Watch-" Hermione stopped and turned to look at the three time travlers and saw that Jack was on the step above the trick stair. To her surprise, he sidestepped it easily and went to the step below it. She looked at his face and saw that he looked oblivious to what just happened.

" 'Watch'?" Jack repeated back to her when he caught her looking at him.

"The trick stair…You didn't land on it," Hermione said.

"What trick stair? These all look fine to me," Jack said.

Unfortunately, Will was not able to avoid it and was stuck. He slowly started to fall but as he collided with Jack's back, Jack was able to hold off the surprise impact and keep them both upright.

"Thanks Jack," Will said. He grabbed the railing and pulled himself off of Jack although his foot was still stuck.

"You can thank me when we're back in Port Royal, even if it means that I'll be facing my old nemesis."

"Who would that be?" Ron asked from the rear of the line.

"That," Jack said as he grabbed a hold of Will's arm and started to tug the younger man free. He grunted, "Basically are the executioner, Royal Navy, and the gallows. Savvy?"

"Don't try to talk your way out of that," Hermione said and took a step up towards Jack. "You skipped that step. How did you know how to do that?"

"Do what? Listen here, poppet," Jack said started to get annoyed by her and the red haired one. The day was starting to wear him out with all the "excitement." "I don't know what you're talking about. Right now, I'll make it loud and clear – I skip a step when walking up or down stairs."

"Why would anyone do that?" Ron asked.

"It's true…I have noticed him do that on more than one occasion," Will confirmed.

"There! See the lad is paying attention! Glad to see some of ole' Bootstrap in ye," Jack said and ruffled Will's hair affectionately before pushing him away. "Now is there rum in this school?"

"Harry –" Hermione began before being cut off.

"Jack, Captain Jack," Jack corrected. He was getting tired of them doing that.

"There isn't any rum in this school," she said. "There isn't any alcohol in this school. You'd have to travel to the village over, Hogsmeade. There are two taverns there – The Three Broomsticks and The Hog's Head. But I doubt you have the updated currency of wizard money. So you'll just have to cope."

"Cope?" Jack mouthed shocked and angrily. A flash of red crossed his eyes as did his vision. He rested his hand at the butt of his pistol, his finger just itching to touch the trigger. As much as he loved rum, he decided not to shoot the snotty, know-it-all before him. Instead, he cracked his jaw as he eased his aching hand away from the pistol. "Listen here, you…witch."

"Hey that's my wife you're insulting," Ron interjected.

"You too, Red. I 'ave been nothing but compliant with you two faux people. Yes, I may have owe you one for saving my bloody carcass back in Port Royal, but you two are no use to me dead, aye? You may have magic, but I am Captain of the Black Pearl. And –"

"Captain? Where the hell is your ship then?"

"That is a very good question, but seeing as there aren't any answers and I feel disinclined to answer your queries. But listen here, you and your wench, harm me or the two daft pirate couple behind me and you face the wrath of a real witch, a goddess," Jack said his voice low.

"Yeah right," Ron said.

"Goddess' don't exist," Hermione said.

"What seeing is believing then?"

"Yes," Hermione said.

"Tell me. Were you born a witch?"

"Yes."

"Did you know you were a witch, much less a …"

"No. I don't see your point."

"Exactly! Because there are no points to visually see is there? Born a witch and not knowing it. Then did someone have to demonstrate it to you or were you so smart that you knew?"

"I don't have to answer your questions, anymore."

"Fine. But tell me. This place you're taking us," Jack said and held onto to the railing. He hoisted himself on the rail and sat on it with one leg still on the step, holding him in place. "You've never been there since your Harry disappeared, have you?"

Hermione turned beat red from embarrassment, shame, or anger.

"Why not?"

"It's not like we placed those wards there!" Ron blurted out.

"Ah. What makes you think that if I am this Harry Potter, I'd let you in? You certainly haven't won my vote," Jack said. He lifted his foot off from the step and he slid down the rail, his eyes never leaving theirs. When he almost reached the end, he hopped off. "Might I suggest something not so discreet…Something like water? In a bottle, but more potent and not too poisonous."

"This is madness! Why should we believe and listen to some insane, alcoholic pirate?"

"Because this insane pirate has something you guys want. Something you can't get your hands. Something I might even want to barter to the highest bidder," Jack said mysteriously. Truth be told, he didn't know what he's talking about, but from the looks of their faces it worked.

_Could the notorious pirate Captain Jack Sparrow really be the famous wizard Harry Potter? Reviews please._


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